For the last ten years of her life, twenty-five-year-old Maria Sylvia has lived with what she thought was a “cool” brown stripe underneath her thumbnail.
Little did she know that this so-called “cool streak” was actually a cause for concern, a truth she learned through a viral TikTok video.
Sylvia first noticed this peculiar mark on her thumb at the age of sixteen. Believing it to be nothing more than a simple mole on her nailbed, she went on with her life, unaware of the ticking time bomb it truly was. Fast forward nine years, and Maria received a shocking diagnosis: a rare form of skin cancer occurring under nails called subungual melanoma.
This news, as you could imagine, was devastating—but Maria didn’t keep it to herself. She shared her new reality with friends and followers on TikTok in a video that quickly amassed more than nineteen million views in just two weeks. This surge in viewers tuning in to learn about subungual melanoma underscores the importance of awareness.
“Me: Having this for ten years, thinking it was a cool streak in my nail,” Maria wrote as an on-screen caption in her TikTok video. “It’s cancer.”
The interest in her story didn’t fade. In fact, it sparked so much curiosity and concern that Sylvia shared a series of updates via multiple TikTok videos.
Maria took her followers back to December 2012, the first time she noticed the faint streak on her thumbnail. Over the years, this innocuous streak grew darker, becoming a silent harbinger of a rare form of cancer piling on stress like snow on a bad winter’s day.
“I had seen doctors. I was in and out of doctors’ [offices] all the time. I was an athlete, so I was getting physicals every year,” she explained in one of her videos, adding an extra layer of frustration to her story.
But doctors, bless their hearts, often missed the forest for the trees. It wasn’t until circa 2014 that one doctor finally noticed it and said, ‘Oh, that’s odd, but you don’t really fit the demographics, so if it just grows any bigger, go and see a doctor.’ By then, it had likely grown to its full extent.
With no pain associated with the streak, Maria shrugged it off, believing it to be a mole, as a doctor once suggested. Fortunately, a concerned friend urged her to get a biopsy. The result? Cancer. But it wasn’t as dire as it could have been—it was stage 0, meaning the cancer hadn’t yet burrowed deeper than the top layer of her skin.
Maria recounted to Newsweek, “I was informed that this cancer can stay in situ (also known as stage 0) for 10-13 years before hitting stage 1. I felt relieved that I got it looked at when I did, but I knew there was more to come for getting rid of this cancer.”
Now, on a mission to spread awareness, Maria is urging others to get screened for cancer.
“I think some people are afraid to confront the possibility of having cancer and facing their mortality,” she shared with Newsweek, striking at the heart of our communal hesitance.
“The biggest thing I have urged is to put your mind at ease and follow through with seeing someone. If this is caught early, it is very curable, and having a wonky thumb for a month or two is better than not having one at all.”
From thinking she had a quirky streak to facing the daunting reality of skin cancer, Maria Sylvia’s journey is a clarion call for vigilance. It’s not just a story about a young woman and her brown stripe; it’s a reminder for everyone to take note of their bodies and seek medical advice when something feels off. Because sometimes, it’s not just a streak—it’s a sign.
