Life is too short to be afraid of the sun. I spent most of my teenage years hiding from the sun to prevent getting any darker. Today I sometimes still need to convince myself that it is okay to get tanned and that I love myself and my skin no matter what I look like. It can be hard to break the patterns you have learned from a young age. Family/Friends/Media all pointed towards the beauty of being light as a brown kid, so that is what I did. I hid from the sun. I have now realized my patterns and the toxicity in the statement, and I called for change. You can find my tanned self by a pool chair. Cheers to the never-ending journey called growth🥂