Any other pale girls out there?

Ack...pale is beautiful no tanning beds

Heard of fair skinned and beautiful? Learn to love it!

I'm not arguing that pale girls aren't hot, I'm just saying there are ups and downs to every situation.

Drinking alcohol can lead to liver damage, but do people stop drinking?

comparing tanning to drinking.... hmmm not exactly the same but I see what you're going for... but hey, I've heard ignorance is bliss...

Same here! Irish, Austrian, Scottish, and a little bit of Russian and *I think* Swiss or Norwegian. But the biggest percentage is Irish and Scottish.

If you want to have the plastic surgeon cut a huge hole out of your nose because of growing up in the arizona sun, ie biggest tanning bed in the world, and spending summers baking on the beaches of california then by all means go ahead and tan. I am 44 yrs old, and have a huge scar on my nose that is so unattractive even though I have the absolute best plastic surgeon in the city of Phoenix. I had a basal cell carcinoma so not the worst kind of skin cancer but cancer all the same. I prefer tan in the bottle. no one can tell that it is fake. and by the way I have the cutest nose in the world, so sad that it is damaged now!

im not going to tan my whole life! only while i have the body i want and deserve.

Isn't that body deserving of protection?

When I was 8 years old, my grandmother had most of her nose removed from skin cancer, she continued to wear the bandage long after it had healed because she didn't want to scare small children when she went out. My mom had a large portion of the side of her face removed from skin cancer, she had a big scar larger than the size of a silver dollar next to her eye, and she learned to style her hair to cover it. I am actually afraid to go in the sun, I wear sunscreen and avoid outdoor activity, even though I love to exercise, I workout inside. It is not really a question of if you will get skin cancer, but when you will get skin cancer. It is so common, especially here in Florida. You could not give me enough money to climb into a tanning bed!!! Not to mention I had a friend when I was in my early 20's who worked in lawncare, she was out in the sun 8 hours a day, and her skin was so wrinkled, she was 25 at the time, I am 40 now, and I will probably not have as many wrinkles at 60 as she had at 25! It was such a shame too, she was so pretty, but she was so wrinkled she looked so much older! She visits the Dr regularly to get new cancers removed. : (

Wear your "paleness" with pride and recognize it's absolute natural beauty. We live in a society that the culture says tan is beautiful. I am a child of the 60's. I was not a devout sun lover but was certainly out there. I've had a basal cell on my back. I have had several pre cancers taken off of my face. Each time the healing is longer and a more noticeable scar. I have very dark hair and features but 'alabaster' coloring. Even at my age I've had people tease me about my paleness! I have always had some degree of tan until the last few years. My sister in law just had a basal cell removed from her nose and plastic surgery to fix that. Even at my age I struggle with the whole issue of pale skin. It is going to take strong women like you to change the mindset. Nicole Kidman is a beautiful woman. Yet I have heard critical comments about how 'white' she is. But obviously she gets it, and it certainly has not stopped her!
The spray on tan looks nice at first, but does not wear well. Most I have seen start to look blotchy. And I can't think that the chemical is good for you well being.
And don't forget about the affect of sun on your face in terms of aging. The women who stayed tan, worked at being tan, and were always tan, are now paying the price with wrinkles and leathery skin.
I'm sure you have heard all of this, but maybe we, as pale girls, should stand tall, beautiful and pale together.

im not going to tan my whole life! only while i have the body i want and deserve.

Is there a reason that you can't have the body that you "want and deserve" for your whole life?

THIS....

You guys need to do some research.

I work for a dermatologist.
Yes, there are risks to tanning, including increased risk to skin cancers, and wrinkles, but there are many benefits as well.
Tanning can help with skin disorders such as acne, psoriasis, vitiligo, and eczema, it can also help with emotional disorders as well, including anxiety, depression, stress, and self confidence.
Tanning can ALSO help prevent other cancers, such as breast cancer, and increase vitamin D levels, which many people have a deficiency.


There are medicines that can help prevent wrinkles. Any cream or ointment that has a retinoid in it can help stop wrinkles. And moisturizing is key to nice soft skin regardless of color.

For me, the benefits outweigh the risk.

Absolutely not. It is not "tanning" that helps any of the aforementioned "benefits" it is sunlight. You do not need to "tan" in order to increase vitamin D levels, for example, you just need exposure to sunlight. That does NOT suggest that you go out in the sun without protection and just fry your skin...you STILL need to wear sunscreen. Sunscreen does not 100% block sunlight, it only partly blocks it, so you get the benefits without the increased levels of cancer.

Furthermore, there are PLENTY of treatments for acne, which include Retin A, microdermabrasion, chemical and manual exfoliation, etc ALL of which REQUIRE that you wear sunscreen and are extremely effective at treating plenty of skin conditions...so I don't understand how you expect people to TAN AND receive these treatments given that they CANNOT receive DIRECT sunlight when using any of the products mentioned above.

Finally, just because you work at a doctor's office does not make you qualified enough to give out advice, which is pretty evident given that you conflated two distinct terms (i.e., tanning and sun exposure) and gave incorrect advice. If you would (or anyone) would like to read up on the very real dangers of tanning, I would suggest you go to www.skincancer.org, or http://www.cancer.org/Cancer/CancerCauses/SunandUVExposure/skin-cancer-facts ...I mean anywhere.

YEAH!!!:laugh:

What's wrong with being pale? I like it, especially with my tattoo. It really pops on my white skin. Plus my boyfriend loves my paleness, and the pink complexion in my cheeks

Short but sweet: Pale is in!

I do understand the "everything looks better tan" philosophy, so if you go that direction, just please be reasonable and don't overdo it - some of the comments here might sound harsh, but I think you should just take the general message of "nobody wants you to get sick because you wanted to look better and feel more confident - that tradeoff is just not worth it" :flowerforyou:

I am also super pale - like others have said, the "I can see my veins through my skin" kind of pale. I spent a lot of time in the sun as a kid. I always burned, and it always faded right back to uber-pale, so honestly I gave up on tanning to look better because I realized that it's simply not feasible. Skin cancer wasn't even on my radar, but the more I learned about it, the more I decided that pale is definitely the way to go (for me). Now I wear high SPF when I go out, but I still have sun spots on my chest and shoulders from past damage...my dermatologist has told me that I need to watch these, because this is the kind of damage that can develop into cancer. I wish I had started being more sun-conscious sooner, but hopefully I started soon enough (I'm almost 32 and have been embracing my pale for about 10 years)...I still sometimes get carded to get into R-rated movies, so I must be doing something right :happy:

Hi, I'm also pale! My mother and grandmother are redheads. I'm a brunette however I must have more of the redhead gene in me because I burn and peel also. I don't like tanning beds. I love my mother with all my heart and I think that she is beautiful however she has laid in the tanning bed since the 80s and the pores on her face are huge! Her skin does not look healthy or vibrant. Its dull and brown and makeup just looks cakey. I agree that a tan does compliment a person well and I also agree that it makes you look slimmer. I had a tan once after laying in the tanning bed for months at 10-15 mins at a time and ppl kept asking me if I had lost weight. I haven't laid in the bed in years because of my fear of cancer. I would suggest to continue to try the lotions, at home sprays etc until you find one that works for you. My cousin uses one and I swear that I couldn't tell at all that it was real. I can't remember the name though I'm thinking it was something like fake bake.

Well I am certainly not pale..
but I did have a friend in High School who was BEAUTIFUL and had great skin, however, she was very pale and wanted to be darker, and so she began to tan.
At first it looked GREAT, she looked absolutely amazing...and then I didn't see her for a while, well around graduation, I saw her outside of the school and she looked absolutely horrible! Orange and spotty. It was a shame.
Just another RL story.