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Who really said it

Ladies and gentlemen of the class of '97: Wear sunscreen

Not Kurt Vonnegut — actually Mary Schmich Mary Schmich b. 1953 · Chicago Tribune columnist & Pulitzer Prize winner
Disputed In copyright

The line opens Mary Schmich’s column “Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young,” published in the Chicago Tribune on June 1, 1997 ↗. It was never spoken by Kurt Vonnegut — the essay went viral as a hoax email falsely billing it as his MIT commencement address, though MIT’s 1997 speaker was Kofi Annan and Vonnegut never spoke there.

Last verified 14 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Disputed credit — copy with the correction

“Ladies and gentlemen of the class of '97: Wear sunscreen” Mary Schmich, "Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young," Chicago Tribune, June 1, 1997 — not Kurt Vonnegut.

The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Kurt Vonnegut. Use the credit shown above instead.

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by Mary Schmich / Chicago Tribune (Tribune Publishing)). A short, credited quote is generally fine for talks, teaching, and internal decks; for commercial, published, or large-scale reuse, get permission.

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In context

Evoking the world of Mary Schmich — Chicago Tribune columnist & 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary. Theme: "Ladies and gentlemen of the class of '97: Wear sunscreen". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "Ladies and gentlemen of the class of '97: Wear sunscreen". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

The documented source

Author
Mary Schmich
Work
“Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young”
Published
Chicago Tribune, June 1, 1997
Adaptation
Baz Luhrmann, “Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen),” 1997–99

Ladies and gentlemen of the class of ’97: Wear sunscreen. If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. From Mary Schmich’s column

The column frames the piece with the line “Inside every adult lurks a graduation speaker dying to get out,” then delivers this mock commencement address.

Wear Sunscreen — origin, hoax and adaptation

How we verified this

  • The column ran in the Chicago Tribune on June 1, 1997 ↗; MIT later published Schmich’s own account of how her words were mistaken for Vonnegut’s.
  • Wikipedia ↗ documents the viral hoax email crediting Vonnegut and an MIT commencement that never happened.
  • Quote Investigator ↗ traces the column’s advice lines to Schmich and notes their later stray misattributions.
In copyright

First published in the Chicago Tribune on June 1, 1997, the column is well within copyright. Rights rest with Mary Schmich and the Tribune; Baz Luhrmann licensed the text (with Schmich’s permission and royalties) for his 1997–99 spoken-word song.

Fact-check

How Vonnegut got the credit

The “sunscreen” essay is one of the internet’s most famous misattributions — a genuine newspaper column that a viral 1997 email re-labeled as a Kurt Vonnegut commencement speech.

Kurt Vonnegut Fabricated attribution

A chain email in 1997 circulated Schmich’s column as Vonnegut’s address to the MIT graduating class. He never gave it: MIT’s 1997 commencement speaker was Kofi Annan ↗, and Vonnegut had no involvement. He told reporters the words weren’t his — “it wasn’t my wittiness.”

Eleanor Roosevelt Stray line

One advice line from the same column later drifted onto Eleanor Roosevelt. Quote Investigator ↗ found no evidence Roosevelt ever said it; Schmich wrote it in 1997.

The real author is Mary Schmich ↗, whose Chicago Tribune column of June 1, 1997 opens “Ladies and gentlemen of the class of ’97: Wear sunscreen.”

Context

Why it spread

Schmich’s column was a deliberately light, self-deprecating mock commencement speech — “the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience.” Stripped of her byline and forwarded as a Kurt Vonnegut speech, it gained borrowed literary gravity that helped it circle the globe within weeks.

Baz Luhrmann set the text, word for word, to music in his 1997–99 track “Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen),” which topped the UK charts. Luhrmann credited Schmich, who granted permission and receives royalties — cementing her authorship even as the Vonnegut myth persisted.

“Out in the lawless swamp of cyberspace, Mr. Vonnegut and I are one.” — Mary Schmich

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Wisdom Time Purpose

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Wear SunscreenWikipedia

Full history of the column, the Vonnegut hoax email, and the Luhrmann song.
Real 'sunscreen speech' author sets record straightMIT News

Schmich’s own account of how her column was mistaken for a Vonnegut MIT address.
Do One Thing Every Day That Scares YouQuote Investigator

Traces the column’s advice to Schmich and debunks the Eleanor Roosevelt attribution.
Mary SchmichWikipedia

Biography of the Pulitzer-winning Chicago Tribune columnist who wrote the piece.

The real author

Mary Schmich

Mary Schmich

b. 1953 · Chicago Tribune columnist & 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary

Mary Schmich is an American journalist who wrote a long-running column for the Chicago Tribune and won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary. Her June 1, 1997 column — a mock graduation speech built around the advice to “wear sunscreen” — became one of the internet’s most famous texts after it was circulated as a Kurt Vonnegut speech. She also co-wrote the Brenda Starr comic strip for many years.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source

Mary Schmich, “Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young,” Chicago Tribune, June 1, 1997.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Ladies and gentlemen of the class of '97: Wear sunscreen’?” Last verified 14 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/ladies-and-gentlemen-of-the-class-of-97-wear-sunscreen

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