The Beauty Behind Pale Skin (For Those Who Do Not Tan)
Growing up, I use to spend half my day in the summer outside either pulling weeds, picking rock, mowing the lawn, fishing, or just playing outside with the farm cats. I would get an occasional sunburn every summer, but nothing too serious. It normally hurt a little for a day or two then turned into a tan. This happened only a couple years in my childhood.
I had what many called a farmer's tan. A farmer's tan is basically a tan, where you have obvious tan line from your clothing, sunglasses, shoes and socks, ect. The only way to avoid a full farmers tan is to basically go into a tanning salon and tan near naked or perhaps buy lotions that will make you skin look tanner in a matter of hours.
Then one day, many years ago, my grandma told me that she loved my skin. She said that I had peaches and cream skin, something people don't have as much.
From that point on I really was happy with not getting a full on tan.
So many girls from my high school were spending all this time trying to get tan. To many, being tanned meant that you cared about your body image. Normally, it was the popular girls in school that got the tans.
One person made a comment to one of them that they would get wrinkles faster if they tanned all the time. They replied, "I don't care. If I'm old, I'm going to look old anyway. I might as well look good now and worry about the wrinkles later."
Another year at school, this girl went to the tanning salon every week before prom. One day she came to school and every one gasped at her appearance, but not in a good way. Her eyes were messed up. They were puffy and peeling weird. It was one of those incidents where it felt like you were looking at a car accident. You should look away and not stare, but you can't keep your eyes from it.
We asked her what happened. She explained that it had something to do with the goggles in the tanning salon that she was wearing. It was something to do with the soap or disinfecting stuff they put on got on her eyes and she was either allergic or the process of laying in the tanning booth made it cook on her skin. I never understood really what happened.
She had to go through a lot of make-up to look half ways decent for prom because this happened to her one week before. I guess it's the price you pay for beauty.
Being out in the sun is definitely good for a person. The sun releases Vitamin D which, like any vitamin, is good for the body. But there are other ways to get Vitamin D than to just go out, soaking up some rays. You only need about ten to fifteen minutes of sunshine, three times a week to get enough Vitamin D that your body needs.
Too much Vitamin D and you can get calcium deposits in your body. Not enough Vitamin D and you can get things such as osteoporosis as an adult or rickets as a child.
I find it a shame that a lot of people think that they have to be tan to look good. I mean, no sunlight at all, and living like a vampire is no good either, but there are a lot of problems that can come from tanning too much in salons or too much sun.
There's cancer and early signs of aging with wrinkles.
Sometimes I get made fun of for having fair skin. It kind of bothers me at times, but I wouldn't change for them. I think fair skin with a nice skin complexion is very beautiful.
Don't get me wrong, there isn't anything wrong with people who get a tan from being out in the sun. Remember to always wear some form of sunscreen to help protect your skin.
I just mainly wanted to emphasize that people really shouldn't frown upon people who have pale or fair skin. It doesn't mean they don't care about how they look. It doesn't mean they sit in the basement for weeks at a time and don't see the sun.
A long time ago, having pale skin meant you were wealthy. The peasants would have to work outside, and the rich could stay indoors.
Nowadays it seems like people think in order to be beautiful, you have to be tan. I think that those with pale skin shouldn't be made fun of.
I have gotten the, "Have you seen any sunlight lately?"
I am happy with my "peaches and cream" skin. And though my grandma is no longer alive, I carry that with me. I think that there is nothing wrong with pale skin.
I think any skin color is beautiful, from the very dark to the very light and you shouldn't try to change that to make others like you more.
Published by Julie Wenzel - Featured Contributor in Technology
Julie is an indie author for the novella, Alone I Walk. She is also the Editor in Chief and webmaster for GO Critic, a video game review and culture website. Her interests are science, technology, video ga... View profile
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21 Comments
Post a CommentI' ve seen both sides of the spectrum here. I am extremely light myself. Things are always said to me. And because my hair is dark and my eyes are light. I get asked if I am "trying to look like a vampire". How can I be 'trying' if it's the way i am naturally? The other side of it is seeing my little 7year old nephew be in tears when he gets done with school because all the kids keep asking him why he is so dark. (He is of Hispanic). All I do is hug him and tell him the kids are jealous to try and make him feel better. Sad world we live in. I say fight it by just accepting who you are do not conform to the standards of society today (tanning/bronzing/bleaching). Every skin color is beautiful because it's different! :)
im 15 and am extremelly pale..i always have people coming up too me asking if im feeling alright cuz im almost albeno but...even though all this happens ive never and will never wear tan cuz i just dont suit it..being pale makes me stand out not blend in :D
I just turned 47 and the one thing people kept bringing up was my skin. No wrinkles! When I smile, I get a few fragile lines around my eyes, but that's it! I think my pale skin is fantastic. Growing up was hard with pale skin, but now I look at my tanned friends and they look haggard. A tan is skin damage.
And it is true...years ago, tanned meant field worker. I think that the California girl look came in, and all of a sudden we all wanted tans. It became the 'healthy' look.
One of the great things is that my makeup foundation is pale, which makes a great backdrop for color cosmetics. So don't feel bad about being pale! Use sunblock daily anywhere that will see sun (hands included) and keep your peaches and cream skin.
I have very fair skin too, but not the traditional red/pink fair skin. I think that almost makes it worse, I've had people come up to me and ask me why I don't go outside (I do, obviously) and call me pasty and pale. I go to a tanning bed every once in a while in winter because I just feel better afterwards, or before I go on vacation (it helps to avoid a serious burn). But the worst is people making fun of my obsession with high spf sunscreen and with reapplying...but I've had sunburns so bad I've been basically bedridden. Basically my fair skin is unique and it helps to define me, I wouldn't be me if I didn't have this skin.
Thanks for the story i dont tan easily and i have fair skin... all of the popular girls have tan skin and well it makes me anything but confident!!! Sometimes pople say "Wow your pale" And even though i know there kidding it still hurts. And im not even THAT pale SERIOUSLY!!!! :) so thanks for the story
Thank you for the comments! It is hard being pale sometimes, but I refuse to go to a tanning bed still!
Wow I really needed this. I have really fair skin and have never really been tan and EVERYBODY in my town is obsessed with being tan. I get made fun of a lot and my friends joke around with me saying I need to go outside when really my skin just doesn't tan as fast as theirs. It gets to the point that I don't want to go to the pool or do anything because of my skin so I can't get tan. This really made me feel better about myself.
Wow I really needed this. I have really fair skin and have never really been tan and EVERYBODY in my tan is obsessed with being tan. I get made fun of a lot and my friends joke around with me saying I need to go outside when really my skin just doesn't tan as fast as theirs. It gets to the point that I don't want to go to the pool or do anything because of my skin so I can't get tan. This really made me feel better about myself.
Thank you so much for writing this! It really makes me feel better about my skin color. I live in southern Alabama on the bay and EVERYBODY here has a tan. My momma is half cherokee and she is really dark, but I happened to get my daddys white,freckly skin. So I definetely get alot of comments about how pale I am. And I was feeling a little insecure. This really helped me out and made me feel more confident.
Light skin is gorgeous. Dark skin is gorgeous. I wish we could all accept ourselves and love one another just the way we are. I cannot tan...and I don't want to. I turn bright red. So instead, I've decided to accept myself. I will not make my skin darker or change myself to please others.