Public Interest in Skin Lightening Across the United States, January 2015‐December 2020

Skin lightening is a popular practice across the world, especially in India, the Philippines and other Asian countries, and some Caribbean nations. It is a dangerous trend, as some of the products used to achieve a lighter skin tone have been shown to often contain unsafe chemicals. In this article, we examine trends in consumer interest in skin lightening using a Google Trends query of 4 search terms: “skin lightening,” “skin brightening,” “skin whitening,” and “skin bleaching,” across the United States from 2015 to 2020, and demonstrate that it is most popular in states with diverse populations, including a high percentage of black and Asian Americans.