--- title: Selifes and Lice: Can a Picture Promote Infestation? description: Those group closeups may be fueling an uptick in lice cases among teens, say nit pickers canonical: https://time.com/4011395/selfies-causing-lice/ author: Alice Park article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-08-26T16:05:30.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:57:18.601Z article:section: Health og:title: Are Selfies Causing a Surge in Lice? og:description: Those group closeups may be fueling an uptick in lice cases among teens, say nit pickers og:url: https://time.com/4011395/selfies-causing-lice/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltac0a784824738c45/698860ee3c16392c274596e0/gettyimages-544488675.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5120 og:image:height: 2880 og:image:alt: 544488675 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Are Selfies Causing a Surge in Lice? twitter:description: Those group closeups may be fueling an uptick in lice cases among teens, say nit pickers twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltac0a784824738c45/698860ee3c16392c274596e0/gettyimages-544488675.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # No, Selfies Aren't Causing a Teen Lice Epidemic > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=c3c841ec-675f-474e-873b-b10d73811e2a&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1)  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Aug 26, 2015 4:05 PM UTC  Three teenage girls taking selfie while lying on bed in bedroom Three teenage girls taking selfie while lying on bed in bedroom Caiaimage/Tom Merton—Getty Images/Caiaimage  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Aug 26, 2015 4:05 PM UTC One thing is for certain — we’re all taking more selfies than we ever have before. And while social science experts may debate what that says about us, doctors are more concerned about something else entirely: lice. Lice, those tiny, barely visible parasites that can cling onto fur and hair, are more common in kids, who tend to have more head-to-head contact and share things like hats and helmets. But some doctors have been reporting — anecdotally — that they’re seeing more lice among teens. A few are, rather dubiously, are blaming selfies. “People are doing selfies like every day, as opposed to going to photo booths years and years ago. So you’re probably having much more contact with other people’s heads,” Dr. Sharon Rink, a Wisconsin pediatrician, [said on a local television show.](http://wbay.com/2015/08/24/are-selfies-spreading-lice/) But there is no data showing the current lice outbreak—which is in [25 states and features lice resistant to the drugs usually used to kill them](http://time.com/4000857/lice-treatment/)—is overwhelmingly affecting selfie-snapping teens, the National Pediculosis (that’s the official scientific name for a louse infestation) Association told the Huffington Post. The [Centers for Disease Control](http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/lice/head/) says six to 12 million kids, aged three to 11 years, get lice in the U.S. each year. Children, and teens, are more likely to pick up lice during close contact in cars, during sleepovers, or sharing headphones, than they are in the few seconds it takes to take a selfie, say some experts. And many of those raising the alarm have something to do with nit picking — literally. De-lousing salons have sprung up to help reluctant parents who cringe at the idea of tediously taking to the tweezers to pick out the critters, one by one. What better marketing message than to alert the public to a new population of hosts for the ever-hungry louse? ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4011395/selfies-causing-lice/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4011395/selfies-causing-lice/"},"headline":"No, Selfies Aren't Causing a Teen Lice Epidemic","datePublished":"2015-08-26T16:05:30.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:57:18.601Z","description":"Those group closeups may be fueling an uptick in lice cases among teens, say nit pickers","url":"https://time.com/4011395/selfies-causing-lice/","keywords":["medicine","Living","selfies"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltac0a784824738c45/698860ee3c16392c274596e0/gettyimages-544488675.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alice Park","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/alice-park/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltac0a784824738c45/698860ee3c16392c274596e0/gettyimages-544488675.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"544488675","caption":"544488675","creditText":"Caiaimage/Tom Merton—Getty Images/Caiaimage","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/medicine/","name":"medicine"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4011395/selfies-causing-lice/","name":"No, Selfies Aren't Causing a Teen Lice Epidemic"}}]}] ```