When you think of a nighttime skincare routine, face wash, moisturizer and even a serum may come to mind. For board-certified dermatologist Shereene Idriss, CCAS BA ’05, SMHS MD ’09, her evening ritual includes all of that plus a weekly live skincare Q&A session from the comfort of her own bed for her 150,000+ Instagram followers. Her Pillow Talk Derm Instagram series is an after-hours addition to spending her days maintaining a busy practice at New York City’s Union Square Laser Dermatology.
While Idriss has become one of Instagram’s most popular cosmetic dermatologists, that wasn’t her intention. “I was annoyed by all the false information that my patients came in with, after hearing things online from people with zero authority or knowledge about skincare,” says Idriss. “I don’t like public speaking so when my nurse suggested that I create Instagram stories – which aren’t live and disappear after 24 hours—to debunk the rubbish that people were hearing, I decided that I could do that once or twice.”
But her stories struck a chord. Idriss began receiving direct messages from people with skin care questions and realized that there was a void she could fill. “I want to empower people with knowledge so they don’t go into appointments blindly trusting or blindly believing,” she says. “I lay facts down very directly and then share my opinions on procedures or products.”
“With Instagram and filters, people are experiencing a lot of body dysmorphia and can find it hard to recognize what’s normal,” she says. “I want to demystify cosmetic procedures, help people understand how to care for their skin, and make these topics understandable so that people aren’t taken for a ride because of their insecurities.”
Idriss has also used the platform to inspire her followers to believe in themselves and to share her journey to motherhood through IVF. “I want to create a judgement-free zone, with the intention of helping others,” says the mother of an infant son and toddler daughter.
She believes that everybody has their own beauty. “I do not believe in morphing people into this Instagram idea of beauty so my goal is different from patient to patient,” says Idriss. “I want to help people learn to be comfortable in their own skin.”
Idriss says she brings to her patients her ability to be happy with who she is, something she learned growing up as the youngest daughter of Lebanese immigrants. “It hit me during my adolescence, that instead of being shy and ashamed of being a little bit different than my friends, embracing my differences allowed me to flourish,” she says.
GW’s multicultural community is one of the things that Idriss loved about her time at the university, where she completed the seven-year dual BA/MD program before a year of research at Harvard and her residency at Tufts.
“I have the best memories of GW from the group of international students and people I met from all walks of life, many who I’m still friends with,” she says. “I can connect with people from different backgrounds in my work because of the variations in such a colorful student body. It prepared me for the world, which is so much more interconnected today.”
Among Idriss’s classmates during her time at GW’s School of Medicine and Health Sciences were her older sisters: pediatrician Nadine Idriss, SMHS MD ’05, and internist Nayla Idriss, SMHS MD ‘07. In fact, it was the eczema suffered by one of her sisters that led Shereene to dermatology.
“I had originally planned to pursue plastic surgery as I’ve always been inclined to work with my hands as I sculpt and paint,” she says. “However, when my sister had eczema, I saw that dermatologists could help people in a way that enhances who they are rather than drastically change it. The field bridges the gap between medicine and artistic creativity and is a perfect fit for me.”
Her expertise and engaging manner have led to Idriss being quoted and profiled in publications ranging from Harper’s Bazaar to New York magazine. Just recently, she received a 2019 Future of Beauty award from Elle.
“I am very honored that people within the mainstream cosmetic world are recognizing physicians who have put the time and effort into sharing this knowledge,” she says. “If I could have never-ending bandwidth, I would want to become an authority for the mainstream person who is looking for answers that are backed by a medical authority.”
-Michele Lynn
