When I learned about freckles, it made a lot more sense why they show up more in the sun. Basically, freckles are the skin’s way of protecting itself from UV rays. When someone is out in the sun, there skin produces more melanin, the pigment that gives skin its color, to help block and scatter those harmful rays so they don’t damage the DNA.

But instead of spreading evenly, the melanin sometimes clumps in certain spots, which is what creates freckles. That’s why it gets darker or more noticeable in the summer and fade when there’s less sun.

I also found out there are different types of freckles. The common ones the small, light ones they usually change with sun exposure, while others often called age spots, are darker, larger, and don’t fade because they come from long-term sun damage.