Project Black Dot

Globally renowned tennis champion and Supergoop! Co-Owner Maria Sharapova alongside Supergoop! Founder & CEO Holly Thaggard, are proud to announce the launch of Project Black Dot, a new education and activism platform with the singular mission to end the epidemic of skin cancer and improve skin health in America. Maria is the face and champion of this multidimensional platform that focuses on providing consumers with suncare education and activations year round, not just during the traditional “sun” months.

The Project Black Dot platform, which will unveil multiple initiatives throughout the coming year, will kick off with “Project 1: Permission,” calling attention to current regulations on sunscreen in schools. This initiative will put the power into the hands of parents and schools by providing a simple, sunscreen permission slip which gives children the ability to use and apply sunscreen at school with the goal of obtaining 100,000 signed sunscreen permission slips.

“Each year there are more new cases of skin cancer than breast, prostate, lung and colon cancer combined…and yet, skin cancer is one of the most preventable of cancers,” says Thaggard, Supergoop! Founder & CEO. “While summer season and event based suncare is a practice that is on the rise, people are less engaged in every day, year-round suncare habits. It’s this incidental, unprotected exposure to UV rays over the course of a lifetime that creates much of the cumulative damage that leads to skin cancer. Our goal at Supergoop! is for sun protection to be as recognized as a healthy habit as the need for women to get mammograms or even more simply to teach your child to wear a seat belt or brush her teeth. With Project Black Dot, Maria and I are excited to share our passion and help ignite the important conversation about skin cancer prevention while providing simple, convenient tools to help Americans embrace healthy sun protection habits.”

“Since the age of 7, I have spent countless hours under the sun on a daily basis. Growing up at the tennis academy, sunscreen application was a necessity before I stepped onto the court. I assumed this healthy habit was one that most children in the US are exposed to, but through my involvement with Supergoop! this past year, I’ve quickly learned that this is just not the case,” says Sharapova. “Children experience nearly three times more UV exposure than adults, yet we are not supplying them with what they need to protect their skin at school. Through Project Black Dot and Project 1: Permission, I am excited to offer a new way for us to educate parents and policymakers across the country about the importance of teaching children safe sun practices, especially in their formative years.”