skin

I once asked my mom if my grandma got wrinkles on her wrinkels when she bathed. Go figure....

Kitty

I thought that I could get a suntan if I stood really close to a fire for long enough.

Mat

When I was little I told my great-grand mother that if she spent less time in the tub she wouldn't be so pruny. Later I find out that it was just wrinkles!

kerri

we live in a small, remote town in Europe. When we were little, my mum always had au pair girls from canada to look after us.

one of them was an african canadian girl. At that point, my little brother (he was 3, at the time) had never seen anyone that dark before, so he thought her skin colour was make-up and tried to rub it off...

Anon

When I was little (about 4 or 5), I had lots and lots of freckles across my face. I hated them and complained about them a lot because I looked like a dork. My mom, in order for me to tolerate them, told me that 'freckles' were kisses from God and he kissed me so much that they show up.

I believed it for the longest time.

Caley Richardson

when i was little, like when you actually understand what your mom was saying, she told me if i didn't eat all my food at dinner time i would get freckles!?

vivian

i used to wonder, what happens to scabs when they fall off? i thought that a weird land-crawling octopus would seek out the minute pieces and keep them to cover his skin so it wouldn't dry out.

timmy b

When I was a kid, my older brother told me that black people were made that way on purpose. Like if you had a baby in the summer when you were tan, that baby would be born with a darker, sort of olive skin tone. And then when that baby grew up and had a kid, if it was in the summer and the mother was tan, that baby would be even darker, so of course if a darker-skinned person had a baby in the winter, the skin would be lighter.

Yup, I believed that a good portion of my life.

Me

When I was younger, I would always pass a tattoo parlor on the way to the grocery store. Secretly, I wanted to go there to get a tattoo. Except I didn't want a permanent tattoo.. yes, I thought they sold temporary tattoos !

MGM

I used to think that white people were white because they ate too much vanilla. I'm black and i saw a white person for the first time at walmart when i was 5, and i shouted "look mommy, vanilla people!"

Nina

When I was in kindergarten, living in a very white suburb outside of Seattle, there was only one black child in my grade. When we had our only full day (where the am kids and pm kids went all day together), I saw her. During lunch time, when we were all eating our sandwiches, she was the only one with wheat bread, and I thought she had brown bread because she had brown skin. Later on in school, she became one of my best friends... and now I won't even touch white bread. :)

taliba

I remember the first time I saw a person of African-American decent, I was with my grandma...I looked up and saw this person with such dark skin and shouted out to my grandma, "Why is that man made of chocolate!?" I was immediately ushered back into the house.

Heidi

I ticked off these older kids on the bus one day when I was little (and quite a punk). They had freckles, and told me if they touched me, I'd "catch" freckles too (as though it were some sort of disease). Being young and stupid, I was horrified. I went home in tears and would run away from anyone with freckles.

I believed them until third grade. Sad.

Lindsay

My little sister used to believe that people with brown or black skin were made out of chocolate. I assume she also thought people with white skin were made of vanilla.

Anon

I mustve been about 6 or 7 and my Cousin had been abroad on holiday somewhere hot, his skin was blistering and peeling. He told me that a massive blister had popped on his arm and lots of little red spiders ran out of it. I was terrified of getting sunburnt from then on

Rachel

that the smallw arts on my dads neck were caused by swearing!

steve

I used to think that scabs were God's bandaid.

Elizabeth

When I was little, I went to a fast food restaurant and I had nuggets with sweet & sour sauce and I got alot of the sauce on my hands. After I wiped my hands in the napkins I looked at them, and for the first time I saw my life-lines and I thought that the sauce had made brown lines in my hands that may never come off.

Anon

I used to think people with lots of freckles were playing with crayons and drew dots on their face.

WOW

well it is not really my belief it is my mum, well when she was little she used to believe that when god made everyone they were put onto racks black people were on the top and then white on the bottom and god painted the people black and white and she had the the splatters of paint on her and she thought that is why you have freckles

sophie age 13 england