“Write about something you engage with.” That’s the advice one of 3L Carolyn Zaccaro’s professors gave her as she contemplated potential topics for her Boston College Law Review note. Writing a note—approximately forty pages of completely original legal scholarship—is no small feat. But armed with this advice, Zaccaro found herself gravitating toward the sun—or rather, sunscreen—for further exploration.
For years, Zaccaro followed influencer, and Dieux Skin co-founder, Charlotte Palermino’s rise to prominence in the beauty industry. Palermino has amassed close to a million followers across Instagram and TikTok for her “skincare-insider” knowledge and advocacy for reforming how the US regulates sunscreen.
As Zaccaro embarked on the year-long journey of researching, writing, and publishing her note, “Stop Being Shady: How Current Regulatory Processes and Standards Burn Consumer Protection,” she regularly returned to Palermino as an inspiration. In January 2025, when the Law Review published Zaccaro’s note, she reached out to Palermino to share how much of an inspiration she had been throughout the process.
Then, something out of the ordinary happened. Palermino responded with an Instagram post featuring pictures of Zaccaro’s note annotated by Palermino herself. “I didn’t even think she’d read it, let alone share it with all of her hundreds of thousands of followers,” said Zaccaro.
Comments immediately flooded Palermino’s post lauding Zaccaro’s research and writing, and echoing her sentiments about the necessity for reform. For Zaccaro, the support is a “testament to the community [Palermino] cultivated” and “the power of legal scholarship” to reach audiences of all kinds.