Why Are My Eyes Blue?
First let’s talk about the iris. This is the part of the eye that we are talking about when we say “my eyes are blue”. The front layer of the iris is called the stroma and this is what makes eye colour different for each person.
Eye colour has everything to do with the amount of melanin in the stroma of your iris. Brown eyes have lots of melanin and blue eyes have very little melanin.
Babies are born with very little pigment in their iris which is why most babies have blue eyes when they are born. Once they are born melanin starts to accumulate in the stroma of the iris which turns the iris a darker colour. This process can take up to a year. So, if your baby still has blue eyes on their first birthday, they will likely stay that way.
We use to think that eye colour could be predicted in babies by looking at the parents eye colour. However, new research has shown that eye colour is determined by 16 different genes.
Did you know that blue eyes only came around in the last 6000 to 10,000 years? Before this everyone had brown eyes. This change was due to a mutation in the OCA2 gene which limited the production of melanin in the iris.
Although blue eyes are super pretty, they do come with a few risks. Melanin is what protects us from UV and high energy blue light, because blue eyed people have less melanin, they are more susceptible to damage.
Ways to help protect your beautiful blue eyes:
Blue light glasses
Transitions
Even some contact lenses have built in UV protection
A great example of how unpredictable eye colour is: William Duke of Cambridge has blue eyes and Kate Duchess of Cambridge has green eyes, their children Princess Charlotte has blue eyes and her brother Prince George has brown eyes.
Another great example: Dr. Hines has green eyes and her husband has brown eyes, you would think their son would have brown or green eyes but surprisingly he has blue eyes!