About Us

Advantage:SKIN was founded by Mia Thiele, a high school student and USTA tennis player from San Diego, California, USA in 2021. 

"While I was fortunate to have been taught early on about the importance of sun protection, I noticed that many players I met at tournaments seemed completely unaware of the risks of skin cancer. I felt that I needed to do something to change that!"

"My biggest challenge was to turn this feeling into a meaningful project or movement. I had so many ideas and talked to countless people in the process. It took me a while to realize that I needed to start with the fundamentals and figure out if my personal observations were objectively true. That is when I got the idea to start my own survey, the "Junior Tennis Sun Protection Study". Once I had gathered the survey data during my high school varsity and USTA Junior Tennis tournaments, I felt much better prepared to contact experts in the field, and larger organizations, such as Tennis Academies and sunscreen companies to organize educational events on the local and international level. My goal is to reach as many young tennis players as possible through my efforts, and to educate them about the risks of skin cancer, and how to lower their risk by better sun protective behavior on and off the court."