Vanessa's Kiwi Skin Story

“I’ve got fair skin. I’ve have freck­les and moles. I have always tried to be care­ful in the sun, but I recall quite a few bad sun­burns in my child­hood – my low­er back that was missed in the smear­ing of gooey sun­cream or my shoul­ders that the ocean washed clean.

It could be total­ly inac­cu­rate remem­ber­ing on my part, but for some rea­son my par­ents seemed fair­ly lax about the reli­gious appli­ca­tion of sun­screen. The rea­son I’m doubt­ing it wasn’t just my mem­o­ry, is because mine was the moth­er who top­less sun­bathed, slathered in coconut oil, or baby oil (or but­ter if there was noth­ing else avail­able) at every chance she got. Being half Ital­ian and quar­ter Maori, she mustn’t have realised that her chil­dren inher­it­ed their father’s fair­er skin and were there­fore rather sus­cep­ti­ble to vicious rays of that ball of fire in the sky.

And yet, even with those mem­o­ries vivid in my mind, there was a time in my ear­ly twen­ties when my long­ing to be brown over­took com­mon sense. Back when bot­tled fake tan­ning prod­ucts were far less effec­tive than those avail­able today. When $2 tan­ning ses­sions at the sunbeds in Los Ange­les were just too much to resist and I fre­quent­ed such estab­lish­ments in efforts to become bronzed like every oth­er 20-some­thing in Hollywood!

Hav­ing been so care­less, I now am at increased risk of melanoma so I need to be super cau­tious of any changes I notice in my skin. I want to be around for a good while yet. Grand­kids please!”