We write about green products all the time here, so I'm not gonna do some big silly green round up or anything. But in honor of this holiday that's all about awareness--my worst nightmare is Earth Day becoming this crazy commercial holiday like Easter or Valentine's Day where everybody starts buying a bunch of wasteful crap like green balloons and hemp candy and stuff--I wanted to inform you about Teens for Safe Cosmetics. Their very cool mission:

Teens for Safe Cosmetics is a coalition led by dynamic and passionate young women raising awareness about potentially harmful ingredients in beauty and daily use products that may be linked to cancer, reproductive harm and other health risks. The mission is to educate about greener alternatives, advocate for laws to protect health and inspire teens across the nation to work together, inspire action and create change within their communities.

In collaboration with the National Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, teen campaign members played a key role in the passage of SB484, The California Safe Cosmetics Act in October of 2005. Thanks to their 11th hour lobbying efforts in Sacramento, California's Governor signed the bill, on tap for veto into law.

There are all kinds of great resources on their site, such as "The Dirty Dozen," 12 commonly used chemicals to avoid in your products, "Greener Alternatives," a super in-depth directory of companies that make eco-friendly products, and the best teen skincare picks on Ecofabulous.com. Makes me feel kinda bad for being such a stoner slacker when I was that age, but thank goodness for hyper-motivated Generation Whatever-they're-calling-them-now (Z?).