My (19F) 14-year-old brother has been secretly using skin-lightening lotion and I'm really worried.
I (19F) have a younger brother (14M). A while ago, my mom noticed something was off because his skin tone had changed a lot. He's naturally dark-skinned, but his face had become noticeably lighter than the rest of his body. It looked really uneven, and we were all confused.
When my parents confronted him, he admitted that some of his friends had told him a lotion would make him look lighter, so he'd started using it. My mom and dad were really upset and told him to stop immediately because they were worried about what was in it and what it could do to his skin.We thought that was the end of it.
About a month later, though, my sister and I had a feeling he never actually stopped because his skin kept changing. We searched his room and found another bottle hidden away. He'd been secretly using it the whole time.
What makes me sad is that he's only 14. I hate that he's already feeling like he needs to change his skin color because of something his friends told him. At the same time, I'm worried about the health side of it too, because I've heard some of these products can contain harmful ingredients.
He's stubborn and doesn't listen when anyone tells him to stop.
Has anyone dealt with something like this? How do you get through to a teenager who's convinced lighter skin is somehow "better"? I honestly don't know what else we can do.