Scary detail in Aussie influencers' bikini snaps spark debate: 'Sad'

Aussie influencer Rozalia Russian has caused outrage online after she shared a photo of herself sunbathing in a tiny bikini. The Instagram star, who has 259,000 followers on the platform, showed off her tan as she lay on the beach.

When the popular Influencer Updates AU account shared Rozalia’s tanning snap along with similar posts by social media personalities Mia Fevola, Taylor Damir and Sophia Begg, concern started rolling in. Many slammed the young women for their “upsetting” behaviour, saying that sun damage could lead to skin cancer.

The influencers have a collective reach of almost 1.4 million followers on Instagram alone, so followers have urged the Aussies to use their platform for good.

Rozalia was described as looking “crispy” while she lay on the sand in a tiny black crocheted bikini. She showed off how thick her paperback copy of A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara was, saying that she was determined to finish reading it during her holiday.

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Mia was also heavily criticised for ‘promoting’ tanning after sharing a carousel of snaps on Instagram that depicted her extreme tan.

In one of her bikini snaps, she poses with her straps down so her followers could see the difference between her naturally coloured skin and her dark tan.

One passionate Aussie said that influencers promoting tanning culture was “actually disgusting”, suggesting they could promote “sun safety behaviours” instead.

“Tanning is trending on TikTok driven by Aussie influencers. Very sad. If only they understood how bad it is,” another commented.

“This is extremely disappointing as [Rozalia] has already been severely sunburnt and yet is back tanning her tortured skin,” a third pointed out.

“You’d think by 2023, people would understand the dangers of getting a tan,” another remarked.

“As disappointing as these posts are, it’s nice to see there’s a strong commentary from the public that tanning is wrong. A big step in the right direction,” added another.

However, not everybody thinks the influencers have done anything worth criticising, with many labelling the backlash as ‘ridiculous’.

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“Have you seen Aussie beaches the past few weeks? There’s literally thousands of people at beaches for up to 10 hours a day. We going to cancel every Australian???” one person asked.

“It’s none of your business if these girls wanna lie out in the sun? Like what’s it to you? They could have SPF50 on or not, still no one’s place to judge them,” a second pointed out.

“Who cares if they are tanning? Their body, their rules. If they feel like laying around in the sun trying to get a tan and get some Vitamin D, so be it,” agreed another.

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