Why Girls Need More Sunscreen Than Boys

The “slip-slop-slap” mantra is something all Australian parents need to instill in their children. However, depending on the gender of your child, it may be more important to “slop” than to “slip”. According to new research, the majority of girls’ clothes sold in Australia leave them dangerously exposed to the sun.

Sun image from Shutterstock

Australia has a reputation for danger thanks to a menagerie of peckish sharks and venomous creepy crawlies. However, our biggest killer is definitely the sun. The hole in the ozone layer combined with our love of the beach is a potentially lethal combination.

If your child happens to be a girl, they may be in more danger than you realise — and the blame can be laid squarely on pre-teen fashion trends.

A recent study from comparison site finder.com.au found that girls’ clothing routinely provide less sun protection than equivalent clothes worn by boys. To compare the difference between boy’s and girl’s clothing, Finder compared identical sizes from the same brand and retailer across both genders.

Time and time again, the girls’ clothing literally and figuratively came up short. In some cases, the amount of material in the girls’ version was up to 76% less than for boys. There were marked differences in the lengths of sleeves, waist and overall shirt length.

As Finder explains, this is chiefly caused by the feminine trimmings and skimpier cuts of girls’ clothes, such as frilled sleeves, underwear-style shorts and constricted shirts. (It’s worth noting that the aforementioned fashion trends extend to women’s fashion: if you’re a mum, be sure to keep tabs on your own exposed skin in addition to your daughter’s.)

When shopping for both boys and girls, it’s easy to overlook this clothing anomaly: a shirt’s a shirt, right? Wrong. Instead, you should be paying closer attention to what you dress your girls in. As Finder notes, there are still affordable and stylish options on the market that protect girls as well as boys: you just have to take the time to look for them.

[Via Finder]


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