Preserve special html char?

[Jmacp]

I am setting up a phpbb board and may need to email people things from time to time, well just tested out the mail() function to my yahoo beta account and if i try and send a link such as,

<?php
$content ="<a href ='http://www.mylink.com'>Click me</a>";
mail($to,$subject,$content);

//etc..
?>

Then it not rendered right in yahoo the <'s become &lt; etc, i have tried using,

$content = htmlspecialchars("<a href ='http://www.mylink'>click me</a>", ENT_QUOTES); 

but no difference...

any ideas?