Face Value Faces the Facts about Smoking
By Kia Stewart

As a young woman, I know what it feels like to be pressured by my peers as well as society. One part of society that puts pressure on young women is the tobacco industry. Due to their lies, many teen girls think it's cool to smoke. These girls smoke because they want to be accepted, and think the habit makes them look slimmer and appear more grown up. Little do they know, smoking makes you age faster, costs a lot of money, and is a major turn off to most guys.

This summer, I got involved in Face Value, a new anti-smoking campaign for teen girls in Westchester County. I wanted to reach out to younger girls to let them know the dangers of smoking. The goal of Face Value is to prevent girls from smoking and make them aware of the lies that tobacco companies create to get people hooked.

After taking part in numerous auditions, I became a part of the Face Value modeling crew. I learned a lot, but the main thing that stuck out to me was how much smoking cigarettes costs! As a teenager, I know how key money is to our Fridays with our friends or our entrance to the Skate Key with a banging new outfit on. I wondered if teens knew how much they could buy with the money they wasted on cigarettes. Let me break it down for you:

• In New York State, a pack of cigarettes cost $5.50. If you smoke five cigarettes a day for a whole year, that's 1825 cigarettes, or 91 packs. You've just wasted $501.88!

You could have done a lot with this money, like buy a new CD every week or treat your friends to a night on the town in a limo! Or, for those fashionable people, you could have bought five pairs of Jordan's and a matching velour suit from Roca Wear or Baby Phat.

Bet you didn't know that, huh? If you do smoke, consider the money you're wasting and how much you're hurting your looks and your health. As for nonsmokers like myself, share this information with others so they know about the dangerous effects of smoking.