Every time Caroline* looked at herself in the mirror, she felt a sense of dissatisfaction. Each selfie she took was altered with filters that made her appear lighter than she truly was. One day, as she aimlessly scrolled through the internet, she stumbled upon a skin-bleaching product that promised to transform her appearance—and it did, for a while.

“At first, everything was great. I was thrilled with the results. But after a year, I started noticing dark spots on my bleached skin. Then my feet began to swell, and the doctor told me my kidneys had been damaged by the bleaching,” she recalls, her voice heavy with regret.