For most of her early life, Ashley Ann Lora moved through the world feeling like she was different, even though she couldn’t fully explain why. Lora was born with eczema, a chronic, noncontagious skin condition that causes dry, itchy, inflamed skin that can look discolored and scaly when it flares. Eczema shaped how she lived and also how she saw herself.
“I was very insecure and I didn’t feel seen or welcomed,” says Lora. “Often other kids would point at me and say, ‘Why is your skin so bruised there? Why are you wearing so much makeup?’ And I wasn’t, it was just my eczema flare-ups.”
Lora was raised in North Carolina by parents who had immigrated from the Dominican Republic. Though her mom and dad were loving and attentive, she says growing up in a Latina household while living with eczema wasn’t easy.
“My parents were the best, but there was a lack of resources and language when it came to my eczema,” she says. “They didn't really understand what was happening to me and even sometimes would try and come up with their own remedies to support me.”
For some, these feelings of “otherness” might have led to a private, set-apart life away from the public eye. But Lora chose another path, turning potential isolation into connection. Today she bubbles over with joy and confidence as a content creator, speaker, and consultant for the eczema community.
She has built a career around telling the truth about life with a chronic skin condition: the good, the bad, and the very visible. And she’s creating space for others to recognize themselves in her story so they know they’re not alone.
From Patient to Public Voice
Lora’s path to advocacy began in 2014 after the topical steroids she had used for years stopped working during a severe flare. What followed was topical steroid withdrawal (TSW), a difficult and often debilitating condition that can happen after stopping topical steroid creams. In search of answers, Lora turned to the internet. Along with the broader eczema community, she found organizations dedicated to supporting people navigating TSW, and she leaned in.
“I thought, ‘OK, buckle your seatbelt, and let's do this,’” says Lora. “‘It's going to be a very challenging journey.’”
Through blogs, forums, and organizations, she found advice and encouragement as she discovered more sustainable long-term relief of her eczema and endured her recovery. Soon after, she enrolled in a clinical trial for a biologic treatment that dramatically improved her skin. For the first time, she was living life without constant itching and pain.
That same year, she decided to post about her eczema on Instagram and go public with her skin struggles.
“I remember finally clicking the post and then flipping my phone over, terrified,” she says. “Nobody was really sharing vulnerably on social media in 2016. There were a lot of filters. There were a lot of happy pictures. Nobody was sharing the ugly parts of themselves.”
Her post was welcomed with open arms. People filled her inbox saying they also had eczema. They could relate. They saw themselves in her. She became a beacon.
“I had lived a very long time thinking that I was by myself with this condition,” she says. “And so that’s what kick-started my online journey. I wanted to see if there was anybody else out there who would respond when I called out, ‘Is there anybody out there who also lives with eczema?’ I wanted them to see me saying, ‘I'm here.’”
Building a Career
Lora had dreamed of becoming a lawyer since childhood, but over time, her platform grew, and a seed of an idea began to grow in her mind.
“I just remember one day being on my bed with all my LSAT books in front of me, studying, and ‘Hey God, if this is not for me, let me know,’” she says. “And I heard a very clear ‘no’ in my ear, and I shut the book and never looked back.”
It didn’t take long for her advocacy to become a full-fledged vocation. She began collaborating with health care organizations, advising on patient needs, and participating in advocacy efforts. She also hosts support groups and engages directly with her online community, offering guidance, answering questions, and sharing insights. This peer-to-peer network allows patients to feel less alone and more empowered to manage their condition.
Her work now spans consulting, public speaking, and serving as a bridge between patients and providers.
“There needs to be a middle person who bridges the gap,” she says. “There's a lot of mistrust and misinformation that exists now out there because of social media, unfortunately. And so I have really taken it upon myself and to use my experience and step into that connecting role.”
A Champion for Skin Confidence
Through her advocacy, Lora encourages people to embrace themselves fully, flare-ups and all. She challenges the notion that eczema diminishes beauty or worth and shows her followers that confidence is a choice.
She’s also outspoken about how eczema looks on skin of color. Representation is a big part of her platform, since most textbooks show symptoms only on light skin. Many people of color don’t have a chance to see how eczema scales show on skin that looks like theirs.
“When I was growing up, all the images that I would see online showed red eczema patches, but my flare-ups were never red,” she says. “They always showed up as this bluish, grayish, purplish color. And so it's really important for me to share that aspect, for me to share what eczema looks like on my skin.”
As Lora looks to the future of eczema advocacy, she hopes to see more research to counterbalance the misinformation that’s clouding eczema education and a stronger bridge between doctors and patients.
“I’d love for there to be more real trust there and that our community — my community — feels seen and heard by their doctors,” she says.
She plans to continue empowering people with eczema, offering real-life, in-the-moment support by showing up unfiltered, no matter what comes. And she wants to help people realize they’re not alone.
“We say in our community that you don't choose to be a patient advocate and spokesperson — it’s something you truly fall into just based on your own personal experience, and that's exactly what happened to me,” says Lora. “And so it's been a very beautiful journey of turning something that brought me so much pain and suffering when I was younger into something that brings me so much joy and love now.”
