Girls aged under 18 shouldn't be allowed to use sunbeds, says star

Girls Aloud singer Nicola Roberts spoke yesterday of the pressure she faced as a youngster to have a sun tan.

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

She said: "I was once in a place where I did feel a pressure to have a tan.

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

Roberts spoke of her ordeal 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.

The Private Member's Bill was launched by Cardiff North MP Julie Morgan and charity Cancer Research.

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

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She said: "Actually, going into 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 learned to love her pale skin after years of using fake tan to match her bronzed bandmates.