Hi. My name is Michele and I am a tanaholic.
I’ve suffered with tanorexia for decades, thanks in large part to being born and raised in Hawaii.
Thirty plus years and countless sunburns later I can only hope that my daughter doesn’t end up suffering from the same condition.
Living in northern Wisconsin she has a good chance of escaping the same fate as her mother. Then again, she could end up just like me if she gets hooked on reality television beauty shows.
According to a new study, college students who watch reality beauty shows are at least twice as likely as non-viewers to fake bake.
In other words, your child may be inspired to visit a tanning booth if he or she is obsessed with looking like the kids on popular reality TV shows.
The study’s findings are based on surveys of nearly 600 college students in their early 20s. About 61 percent of them admitted to watching reality TV beauty shows on a regular basis.
“It’s very clear that people who are watching (these shows) view this as something positive to do,” the author’s co-author Joshua Fogel told Reuters.
Fogel adds that it’s possible the programs encourage young viewers to tan because they imply people with darker skin are cooler and more attractive.
Interestingly, another study just published in The Journal of Pediatrics found that a startling number of tween girls who watch reality TV shows were focused more on their appearance and were more willing to compromise their values for fame.
I’m pretty sure parents of tween girls didn’t need a team of researchers to inform them of that fact.
Bottom line: the media’s influence on kids is extremely powerful and that goes double when you throw attractive celebrities into the mix.
Attractive celebrities with killer tans… in more ways than one.
Do you allow your child to fake bake?