They’ve Heard the Warnings. Gen Z Is Tanning Anyway.

Like many 19-year-olds of her generation, Makai Wallace, from South Jordan, Utah, cares deeply about her friends, her skin care routine and staying healthy. She also loves a good viral moment on TikTok. But she was surprised to be the face of one after she posted from inside a tanning bed in October. Her video, which amassed over 71,000 views, provoked numerous concerned reactions from the medical community.

“The lioness does not concern herself with ‘skin cancer,’” Ms. Wallace wrote in her post, sticking her tongue out and squinting from the ultraviolet light.

Dr. Brooke Jeffy, a dermatologist in Scottsdale, Ariz., who worked at a tanning salon as a teenager, was one of the doctors who posted a response. “Tanning beds are in the same cancer-causing category as asbestos and plutonium,” she said in the video, adding that using one before age 35 increases your risk for melanoma by 75 percent. “That’s 7-5,” she said.

Ms. Wallace’s casual shrug at the risks of tanning echoes a surprisingly common attitude among Gen Z-ers. Many keep tabs on the UV index, checking weather apps to determine when they can get the most ultraviolet exposure. Tanfluencers, as some social media users call themselves, are posting about “tanmaxxing” with carrot-extract enhancers, or showing off tan lines — and sunburns — after a day soaking up the rays.

A new survey on sun habits from the American Academy of Dermatology found that only 25 percent of Gen Z respondents (ages 18 to 29) reported concern about developing skin cancer in their lifetime, compared with 39 percent of the general population. What’s more, 20 percent said that getting a tan was more important than preventing skin cancer, compared with 14 percent of the overall group.

Experts say young people could be actively defying the warnings about sun exposure — after all, many grew up hearing them from parents, doctors, and in some cases, school programs. Or they could be unsure what to believe, a product of the misinformation promoted on social media and from public figures like Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who uses tanning beds. (The Food and Drug Administration recently withdrew a proposal that would have banned them for minors.) Either way, experts are confounded.

Young people are “not smoking, not drinking, and they’re prioritizing their health in terms of sleep and hydration and exercise and all of these things that we know are established,” said Dr. Neelam Khan, a dermatologist in Washington, D.C.

“I would have hoped that the concept of tanning would have been a part of that, where it just became uncool,” she continued. “All of it is concerning, but the very real risk of them developing skin cancer is the most concerning.”

A Cynical Stance on the Sun

Skin cancer is the most common type of cancer in the United States, yet it’s also one of the most preventable. According to the Skin Cancer Foundation, one in five Americans will develop skin cancer by the age of 70, and having five or more sunburns doubles someone’s risk for melanoma.

Dr. Marisa Garshick, a dermatologist who practices in New York City and New Jersey, says that when patients in their 70s come in with skin cancers, “I tell them, ‘No, don’t worry. You didn’t do anything wrong. We didn’t know then what we know now.’” But today, she noted, it’s different, because we “have a knowledge of the different measures that we can take to protect ourselves.”

That knowledge doesn’t appear to be connecting very well with Gen Z. In an October TikTok post, a user wrote: “The sun gives you cancer. Sunscreen gives you cancer. We die either way, so you may as well be tanned xx.” (There is no scientific evidence that sunscreen causes skin cancer.)

Some teenagers express “a reduced sense of agency over the future,” said Lindsay Fleming, a licensed therapist in Illinois who specializes in young adults. “When the future feels uncertain, long-term consequences lose their emotional weight.” In a 2024 American Academy of Dermatology survey, 25 percent of Gen Z respondents said it was worth looking great with a tan now, even if it meant looking worse later.

Misinformation is rampant, too. The false claim that sunscreen causes skin cancer has convinced many young people, including Ms. Wallace, not to use it at all. Other myths, such as how tanning your perineum can boost energy and balance hormones, or how eliminating seed oils from your diet will protect you from the sun, have also fed into Gen-Z tanning culture. In the new A.A.D. survey, Gen Z respondents cited TikTok or Instagram as their No. 1 source for skin-care information, and 65 percent of them were likely to believe tanning myths, including that a base tan can prevent sunburn or reduce the risk of skin cancer.

“Many young patients are highly informed about skin care and incorporate elaborate routines into their daily routine,” said Ann Frisius, a dermatology nurse practitioner in Chico, Calif. “What concerns me most is not a lack of information,” she added, “but that the messaging isn’t always resonating or that there is mixed information about how much sun exposure is safe.”

Ms. Frisius said her younger patients regularly complained about the size of their pores or asked about preventive Botox. “They all want ‘glass skin’ but will go and fry in a tanning bed, which only makes pores enlarge,” she said. “Every tan is DNA damage.”

The ‘Tanfluencer’ Effect

Ms. Fleming emphasized how a “normalization” of reckless sun habits on TikTok and Instagram influences this generation. “When teens see peers, not just celebrities, engaging in tanning behaviors, it feels more accessible and less risky,” she said. “There’s also a lack of visible long-term consequences in these spaces, which skews risk perception,” she added.

As young men and women increasingly look to influencers for guidance, it has also fostered mistrust in the medical field.

“I’m not going to say Western medicine is a fraud — it’s gotten us so far,” said Mitchell Saron, 25, an Olympic fencer for the United States who regularly posts health and wellness content, including medically unproven sun advice, to his 169,000 followers on Instagram. (Mr. Saron often works from his laptop outdoors, cycling between shade and sun, which he believes helps him maximize the benefits of UV light.) “In terms of health as a whole, I’m more likely to listen to my own body,” he said.

Whole body health is also important to Dr. Khan, the dermatologist in Washington; her recommendations for sun exposure echo those from the World Health Organization, American Cancer Society and American Academy of Dermatology.

Specifically, she advises limiting direct sun exposure, especially between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., or when the UV index is 3 or higher. She also recommends getting five to 15 minutes of sun exposure daily for vitamin D, wearing protective clothing and a hat when out in the sun, applying sunscreen with an SPF of 30 or higher every day, and seeing a dermatologist for an annual skin checkup.

“But those recommendations are not what’s going viral,” Dr. Khan said. Instead, “it’s kind of these more controversial, reactive ways of thinking.”

Ms. Wallace remains unmoved, for now. “My opinion is the sun is good for you,” she said. “Maybe I’ll eat my words one day, but I’m just not worried about skin cancer.”