system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
What the heck are freckles, and why do I have them?

I understand that skin color changes and evolved in different areas of the world based on the amount of sunlight. The idea that humans needed to better adapt to their environment is pretty solid...like the color of most societies around the world. I don't understand freckles...did the evolution of freckled skin get confused? I feel like im 50% white and 50% brown (in areas where I have a ton of freckles). Why no solid color? what is the benefit of freckles?  I often joke that it's the perfect camouflage for hunting potatoes.
gpt
Robbins addresses some of the how, but not much of the why:

>Freckles are the most common pigmented lesions of childhood in lightly pigmented individuals. They are generally small (1 to several mm in diameter), tan-red or light brown macules that appear after sun exposure. Once present, freckles fade and darken in a cyclic fashion during winter and summer, respectively. This is not because of changes in the number of melanocytes, but in the degree of pigmentation.

>Morphology. Hyperpigmentation of freckles results from increased amounts of melanin pigment within basal keratinocytes; melanocytes may be slightly enlarged but are normal in density. It is unclear whether the freckle represents: (1) a focal abnormality in pigment production by a discrete field of melanocytes, (2) enhanced pigment donation to adjacent basal keratinocytes, or (3) both. The café au lait spots seen in neurofibromatosis are histologically indistinguishable from freckles, but the former evolve independently from sun exposure and can contain aggregated melanosomes (macromelanosomes) within the cytoplasm of melanocytes.