Are You Glowing?

I was walking down the aisle of a local grocery store this week and had to stop dead in my tracks. I hated to stare. I tried to look the other way. It was impossible. A woman and her young teen daughter were actually glowing orange. Every part of their exposed body was the color of rawhide. It was frightening. I did a little research. I have seen a tanning bed a few times myself-hopefully not quite so dedicated as the pair in the cereal aisle. Like mother, like daughter — especially at the tanning salon, as it turns out.

Many teen girls hit the tanning salon for the first time with their moms in tow, says a new study published in the December issue of the journal Archives of Dermatology. This finding wasn't exactly surprising to lead researcher Katie Baker, a doctoral student at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, Tenn.

"I grew up in a community where indoor tanning was prevalent, and young women who want to start tanning before they reach 16 or 17 have to rely on their mother to not only transport them, but to pay for their tanning," Baker said.

It's a small study, including just 227 girls and young women ages 18 to 30, all undergraduate students at East Tennessee State. But it does make some interesting observations. Nearly 40 percent of the women said their first experience with indoor tanning was with their mother - and those girls tended to start tanning about two years earlier than the other study participants (starting at age 14 instead of 16). Plus, these girls were almost five times as likely to be "heavy tanners" as college students. (In this study, that's defined as tanning more than 25 times a year.)

Wrinkles? Cancer? In 2009, the World Health Organization said that tanning beds and ultraviolet radiation are among the top cancer risks, as deadly as arsenic, mustard gas or cigarettes. And last year, the Food and Drug Administration considered enacting a ban on tanning beds for those under 18.

Experts caution mothers that their daughters are watching their unhealthy habits - including tanning, which increases the risk of skin cancer 75 percent when people start using tanning beds before age 30.Moms have an unbelievable influence on daughters-ideas about appearance, and beauty habits. Overtly, by telling their daughters what they think of their looks, and what they should be doing to take care of themselves, and indirectly, by having daughters that watch them like hawks. Our girls naturally adopt the routines and values that their moms display. I remember the shampoo my mother used (Prell) and the smell of Estee Lauder's Youth Dew cologne can transport me back to her dressing table.

If one of the reasons you tan with your daughter is to be together, find another activity. An exercise class, cooking, shopping, community work, scrap booking, anything is more positive. You are modeling healthy behavior and still spending time with each other. Jersey Shore's Snookie may not be concerned about her skin and health-but Mothers and daughters should be. chrissie