Bethany Well

Freckles. That’s what they used to call me in 5^th grade. The nickname I abhorred. The unpretty brown spots that I thought belonged on my red-headed Raggedy Ann doll—and not on me. But yep, I have freckles (and thanks to something called cover up they’re not so noticeable now!).

But why do I talk about freckles? Because it reminds me of how oblivious us Asians are to seemingly simple, common—and important—habits like putting on your daily sunscreen. (if you didn’t know, freckles are caused by being out in the sun too much with little or no SPF UV ray protection. Oh, usually for people with less melonoma in their skin…I don’t know the real scientific facts.)

You see, we are those who suffer from the “that doesn’t affect me” syndrome. Since I work at a magazine, and I am admittedly an obsessive magazine-junkie, I read about these things. And one of the things that I’ve been finding is that, year after year, there is a crazy high number of people who are diagnosed with skin cancer—yep, it’s supposed to be like the number one widespread cancer. Is not that crazy? And I’m sure it’s not only hayan people who get it either.

Most of us are Asian. We don’t tan nicely like the Brazilians do (well, some of us do… ahem…no name mentioned). But the reality is that trying to get that golden glow without any sun protection is…really unsafe.

So at the risk of sounding preach-y, just gently cautioning ya’ll Wellers (now that it’s officially summer- woohoo!) that as annoying of a task as it may be, dabbing or smudging on the dime-sized amount of sunblock on your face or other exposed areas can go a long way. (Ladies, note: putting on sunblock = fewer wrinkles on your face = young, beautiful looking forever. Yay!)

Which reminds me, who’s bringing sunblock to the BBQ this Sunday?

Written by: leaner on June 20, 2008.