In our journey to curb skin cancer, we've made a discovery. People have a good understanding of the risks associated with excessive sun exposure. What's standing in the way of wining the battle against skin cancer is tanning culture.

For decades, sunscreen companies have promoted a toxic, tan-centric beauty standard - pitching their products as a way to "get tan without getting burned" while selling products that only protected against UVB rays (that cause burning) without protecting against the deeper penetrating UVA rays that are responsible for melanoma.

Coppertone (whose name is a compound of copper + tone) even produced an ad campaign mocking you if you weren't tan. In it, the famous Coppertone baby has her bathing suit tugged by a dog underneath the instruction, "Don't be a paleface!"

Millions of people flocked to tanning beds in the 90s and 2000s, laying prone as they were bombarded with UVA rays. Turns out, tanning beds are as bad for us as smoking. Due in great part to this desire to be tan, skin cancer diagnoses are on the rise when they should be in a precipitous decline.

We're not going to curb skin cancer until we can defeat this toxic beauty standard, and replace it with a fundamental and important idea: loving yourself and embracing your individuality.

Your skin tone is a part of who you are. It's one of the many beautiful things about you that converge to form your unique self. So you shouldn't be trying to change it. You should embrace it.

Don't burn it, crisp it, tan it. Protect it. Look in the mirror and love what you see. Including your skin.

We hope you enjoy the message.