It was midway through a Brady Bunch episode about how much Jan hated her freckles when I realized how much I wanted some of my own. I was probably twelve or thirteen– somewhere in those years when you first start to notice that you’re a girl and that girls are supposed to care about their skin– and wanting freckles became a thing in my life. I immediately sought out information about how to procure some, and all I could find was advice for making them go away. My American Girl beauty book told me to put lemon juice on my cheeks. My Seventeen magazine also pointed out that lemon juice could lighten my hair. Some janky little Geocities page recommended lemon juice for getting rid of discoloration on my legs. I didn’t know what discoloration was, but I was hooked. Lemon juice was, obviously, the cure-all. I accepted this for years, and it wasn’t until a few days ago that I found myself being like, Wait, what?
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