Damsel In Training: Miss Florida Teen USA
Who: Kayla Collier, 18
Why She's Damselicious: The reformed tanorexic held a news conference yesterday (with her pageant sash in tow) to talk about legislation that would ban minors from using indoor tanning beds, either by restricting access to salons or by requiring a note from a parent or doctor.
If passed, the new law would be one of the strictest in the nation, according to ABC News. Wisconsin bans teens 16 and under from using tanning beds, "though a handful of others — California, New York and New Jersey among them — ban the under-14 crowd. At least 29 states have some regulations governing tanning by minors."
Kayla's concern about UV exposure isn't just a pageant platform—she's a skin cancer survivor. Her bronzing habit started at age 15 as an antidote to harsh stage lights, which supposedly make pale people look icky. But the same year she got hopped up on radiation, Kayla found a growth on her back. It's been sunblock and shade ever since.
This pale-and-proud Damsel has had her own run-in with melanoma (she's never been a sun-seeker--blame it on genetics), and fully supports the tanning bed ban for minors. We advocate treating a vice like tanning the same way we treat cigarettes. But more than that, education is key.
How do you take your rays (sunblocked with a side of large-brimmed hat or filter free)? And what do you think of the proposed ban? —No. 26
[Photo: Kayla Collier, Miss Florida Teen USA, left, along with Sen. Eleanor Sobel, D-Hollywood, hold a news conference (AP)]
http://damsel.typepad.com/damsel/2009/03/damsel-in-training-miss-florida-teen-usa.html
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