Burning your skin is a message. And it speaks to the malaise of young people.

There was a time when sunburns were a minor accident, a nuisance to be avoided, a warning sign from the body asking for a break. Today, thanks to (or rather, because of) TikTok, they become challenges. They become content. The new trend is called the "Sunburn Challenge": boys and girls deliberately expose themselves to the sun without sunscreen, to achieve visible burns, pronounced swimsuit lines, handprints, or designs left on their skin. The result? A reddened body that goes viral. And a wound that becomes aesthetic.
But what's really behind all this? It's not just a sunburn: it's a message. Getting a sunburn is never a neutral choice. Every doctor knows this well, reminding us every year that excessive sun exposure drastically increases the risk of skin cancer, particularly melanoma. But it's not just the skin that suffers. It's the message that should scare us: "If I suffer, if I ruin myself, if I push myself further, then I'm worth more. Then they'll see me." Because ultimately, this trend isn't just about the sun. It's about visibility, social approval, existential fragility.
Today, the body has become a stage. Every burn, every redness, every limit crossed is a spectacle to be exhibited. And pain, when shared online, suddenly becomes acceptable. Even admired.
“Aestheticized” painThe Sunburn Challenge is yet another expression of an era that has transformed pain into content. No longer something to avoid, but something to "wear" with pride. There's no longer any shame. There's no longer any sense of limits. There are young people who choose to hurt themselves to belong, to please, to be noticed. And here it's not just dermatology that needs to intervene. It's psychology. It's culture. It's adults who need to wake up.
The fragility that screams through the skin. When a teenager voluntarily decides to harm themselves for visual effect and share it, it's not freedom, it's a cry for help. A cry disguised as a challenge, a game, a trend. But it's still a cry. It's the failure of a society that has taught people to show themselves, not to feel. That has taught them to like, not to heal. That has legitimized pain, making it viral.
ARCHIVE: Articles by Giuseppe Lavenia
Educating today means teaching how to protect oneselfSunscreen isn't just a medical procedure. It's a symbolic gesture. It's telling your body: "I respect you." It's teaching our children that not everything should be shown, that not everything should be done, that not everything should be accepted just because others like it. We adults must go back to being filters. We must restore dignity to the body as a place of life, not as an object of spectacle.
The sun as a metaphorThe sun isn't the problem. The problem is the idea that existing requires letting yourself be burned. That pleasing others requires experiencing pain. So the real challenge today is teaching kids that they don't have to wear a scar on their skin to feel loved. That you don't need to get burned to be noticed. That truly existing means protecting yourself. Even when everyone around you seems to say otherwise.
Giuseppe Lavenia, psychologist and psychotherapist, is president of the National Association of Technological Addictions, GAP and Cyberbullying "Di.Te", professor of Psychology of Technological Addictions at E-Campus University and professor of Psychology of Work and Organizations at the Polytechnic University of Marche
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