My 16 year old son is, all of a sudden, obsessed with lightening his skin. He wears long pants, shirts, jacket, hat and even carries an umbrella - even when it's 100 degrees outside. He no longer wants to wear shorts, go swimming or any outside activities. He's also bleached his dark hair blonde. He naturally has dark brown hair and olive skin. He's always tanned nicely and never burned when in the sun. Could this be some sort of teen fettish? I know that exposure to sun does provide certain healthy vitamins and I'm getting worried... he looks like a ghost. Any suggestions?

Hi I am a 19 yr old male and I am also obsessed in lightening my skin.. well not actually lightening, just evening out my skin tone because my arms are slightly tanned.. I have yellowish fair skin but I hate that it's uneven.. so there, he may have d same prob as me

oh and I read somewhere that we shouldn't as much as possible be exposed to the sun from 10am-3pm.. esp if u have light skin.. but dark skinned people have no probs wit that because they wouldn't get sunburn because they have enough melanin to protect against harmful uv rays, always bringing an umbrella is a good idea but maybe your son should get out in d sun at least every morning when the sunlight isn't too strong.. because he might turn too pale =)

There is a new generation of kids,the Emo kids and they are an extension of Goth but they take it a step further from some point of view.I'm not up on it so here is a link you may want to investigate that and see if there is any correlation.
Emo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
It was the easiest,what can I say?

Maybe they all want to be vampires?
That is a craze as well.
Kids are so impressionable ,you never know.

Have you talked to him about it

I don't think he is becoming an emo as artlady suggested nor do I think he is becoming a goth. Because he bleached his hair blonde. He probably just want to be a different person. You should talk to him. It's the best thing to do. Get him to appreciate his own body.

And mind you, this is coming from a 16 year old girl ;)

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Originally Posted by SugarBlush

I don't think he is becoming an emo as artlady suggested nor do I think he is becoming a goth. Because he bleached his hair blonde. He probably just want to be a different person. You should talk to him. It's the best thing to do. Get him to appreciate his own body.

And mind you, this is coming from a 16 year old girl ;)

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Totally agree. I am 18 and I think that maybe it is not so much and obsession, maybe he wants to reach a certain skin tone/shade before he stops. Just ask him to talk to you about it and help you understand and if he is not obsessed to the point of using 50% HQ cream then just respect his wishes.

Hope that helped x