May is skin cancer awareness month, which means that it's time for my annual friendly reminder about skin cancer prevention. Or rather, the time when I annoy all my friends by telling them not to get tan.
The saddest thing about skin cancer (besides the fact that it is deadly) is that we KNOW how to prevent it. Yet, as a culture, we continue to go along with the idea that being tan is beautiful and healthy. It's not! Being tan isn't more beautiful and it's definitely NOT healthy. What's beautiful and healthy is caring for the skin you were given. Even if, as adults, we don't care about getting skin cancer ourselves, how sad it is that we are teaching young teenagers that being tan is most beautiful and letting them reap the benefits. I read so many stories online of teens and young adults getting melanoma. It horrifies me because it is just so preventable. All we have to do is take care of our skin and stop promoting the myth that being tan is more beautiful. I can't bear the thought of losing someone I care about, so I continue to annoy them about skin cancer. I hope that you will do the same!
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