Singer tells of suntan pressure (From The Northern Echo)

“Without having a tan, I did not feel attractive" - Nicola Roberts

9:26am Thursday 14th January 2010 in Sunbed Safety

GIRLS Aloud singer Nicola Roberts yesterday spoke of the pressure she faced as a youngster to have a suntan.

The star, famous for her alabaster-toned skin, said she used to feel unattractive if she was not tanned.

She said: “Tanning is a subject that is really close to my heart.

“I was once in a place where I did feel a pressure to have a tan.

“Having a tan made me feel more attractive, it made me feel more accepted. As a young girl being very influenced by peers, by media, by everybody in society, that was just the way I felt.

“Without having a tan, I did not feel attractive, I just did not feel very good at all.”

Roberts spoke while appearing alongside Health Secretary Andy Burnham, who gave the Government’s backing to a call for tanning salons to be banned from allowing under-18s to use sunbeds.

Roberts said a recent trip to Liverpool had left her feeling shocked after she realised just how many young girls were using sunbeds.

She said: “Actually, going into the streets of Liverpool and interviewing the young girls who are obsessed with having a tan and feeling like they had to be brown to be seen as attractive, that whole mentality that they had gathered was just a bigger problem than I ever thought it was.”

Roberts, who is making a documentary about the dangers of the tanning industry, said she has learnt to love her pale skin after years of using fake tan.

The Northern Echo has campaigned to have laws in place to stop youngsters using sunbeds.