908.233.0200 | Westfield, NJ | BOOK ONLINE

Vanity Drives Kids To Better Skincare

An article in today’s Wall Street Journal said that teens are more inclined to avoid sun damage to their skin if they’re scared into it – seeing a video about photoaging is more persuasive than being told that sun damage can cause skin cancer. Vanity is a stronger motivation to take care of their skin today, than any health concern about tomorrow. No surprise there – rare is the child that is conscious about possible middle-age problems.

This made me wonder, though, about us middle-agers (the kid in me still wants to deny my middle-age!). Which is more important to us when it comes to making skin care important – do we do it for better health or for beauty’s sake? Or both? I’ll tell you the truth – I am more inclined to wear sunscreen every day to avoid wrinkles and ugly brown spots on my face. Sure I give an intellectual nod to wanting to avoid skin cancer, but sad but true, this isn’t important enough to me to actually put on sunscreen in the winter. So I have to admit that I’m as childish as the teens in the article today, and that this big kid still is more motivated by vanity than by health concerns.

What about you? What motivates you to avoid skin damage from the sun? What works for you – beauty and/or health concerns?

Carlos Burnett