Brittanny Groover grew up in a small town in Pennsylvania and spent her childhood outside, playing, riding her bicycle, and swimming in outdoor pools.

“I wasn’t raised in a household that told me to wear sunscreen,” she said. By her teenage years, she was going to tanning beds frequently. She was a high school cheerleader and figured she needed to be “tan and beautiful” to keep up the image. When her mom stopped paying for her tanning bed sessions, Brittanny switched to tanning outside and tried to lay out when the sun’s UV rays were the strongest.

Brittanny, who is blonde and naturally fair-skinned, started seeing a dermatologist annually in her early 20s. But because of the pandemic, her 2020 check-up didn’t happen. The following year, when Brittanny was 27, she went to her appointment and asked her doctor about a mole on her shin that had grown to the size of a nickel and become dry and patchy. When she got the diagnosis, she said its seriousness didn’t register – partially because she was naive to what it meant.

“My first question was, ‘What’s melanoma?’ I had never heard of that word before in my life,” Brittanny, now 30, recalled.

Despite her dermatologist’s urgent referral to a doctor in Pittsburgh, Brittanny opted for a local oncologist – a decision she said she made because she didn’t understand the threat of melanoma. The initial excision was improperly done, requiring a more extensive second surgery and a skin graft from her groin.

Because her cancer had spread to a lymph node, Brittanny’s treatment also included 18 rounds of immunotherapy, which triggered severe gastrointestinal problems that she said weren’t addressed until she had severe colitis and damage to her pancreas.

Throughout her treatment, Brittanny documented her experiences on Instagram, providing a raw and honest portrayal of living with melanoma. The posts helped her connect with other melanoma patients and survivors around the country and the world. Some of those strangers-turned-friends encouraged her to advocate.

“We talk and Facetime and Zoom and it’s just the closest friendships even though we’re not physically together,” she said.

Today, Brittanny is three years out from her diagnosis and NED. She’s committed to educating others about the risks of tanning and the importance of regular skin checks. She shares social media posts dispelling myths about skin cancer and sunscreen and wants her message to reach teenage girls like her who think they need to be tan to fit in or be popular.

“Tanning in the sun is like a drug,” she said. “It might feel good at the moment, but in the long run, it’s making you look worse and older and you’re putting yourself at risk.”

Brittanny is quick to clarify that she is still a “girly girl” and loves to look sun-kissed, but she’s turned to spray tans and self-tanner to get the look. When she goes to the beach or the pool, she chooses a spot under an umbrella and in the shade. She now has a collection of cute hats and UPF gloves.

She’s also raising her young son to understand how to protect his skin.

“I’m going to make sure my son grows up in a different world than I did,” she said. “He’s gonna grow up knowing that sunscreen is just a part of your health, just like brushing your teeth.”