Imagine your skin is like a canvas, and melanin is the paint. Some people have more paint, their skin appears darker. Others have less paint, their skin appears lighter. This happens because of something called genes passed down from parents to children. Just like you can mix different colors of paint, humans can have many shades of skin depending on how much melanin they get from their family.
Examples
- Like mixing paint colors: some people have more black paint (melanin), others less, that makes their skin look different.
- If you’re born under the sun in Africa, your skin might be darker to protect you from the rays.
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See also
- Why Do Some People Have No Body Hair?
- Why Do Humans Have Such Weird Body Hair Patterns?
- Why Do Humans Have Such Strange Body Hair Patterns?
- What is eumelanin?
- What is Evo-devo?