Ouch. One day we’re winning awards; the next day we’ve got egg on our face. (Which, it turns out, really should be sunscreen.)
An observant reader pointed out to us that the girl on our March cover has a pretty nasty sunburn going. It only took one (additional) look and we had to agree. Had we noticed the red legs and the beginnings of a burn on the young girl’s face, we would absolutely NOT have used this photo for our cover.
In our defense, we don’t get to see EXACTLY how the cover will look until it rolls off the presses. The “proofs” that we review before printing simply don’t capture the intensity of all of the colors. We’re always on guard for the appropriateness of our cover photos – we’ve rejected photos that had kids with bike helmets but parents without (BAD role models!) and we’ve also nixed covers that looked like the too-young models were wearing make-up (why would a 7-year-old need lipstick anyway?!)
We’ve now added “do the children look like they have sunburns?” to our cover photo vetting process.
This is an important issue – because sunburn, as that observant reader pointed out, is a serious matter. Especially sunburns during childhood. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, up to 80 percent of our lifetime sun exposure occurs before we turn 18. The AAP points out that: “Sun exposure in early childhood and adolescence contributes to skin cancer. Research has shown that two or more blistering sunburns as a child or teen increase the risk of developing skin cancer later in life.”
So – with egg on our face (and a healthy dose of sunscreen) – we apologize and plead with all parents to slather sunscreen on your little ones. Click here for sun safety tips from the AAP.
And for a wonderful tribute to the virtues of sunscreen (plus myriad other profound thoughts), click here to watch a video of the Wear Sunscreen Song on youtube.

March 5th, 2009 | Category: Metro Parent