More and more teenagers are becoming activists for anti-smoking efforts and other health issues, and are succeeding in their mission, the Christian Science Monitor reported May 4.In Newport Beach, Calif., 15 teenagers attended a town meeting to support a smoking ban on beaches in the city. To make their point, they brought eight-foot-high Plexiglas tubes filled with 13,000 cigarette butts gathered from nearby beaches.
"Teens have been taking the lead on this issue and been successful where adults have failed," said Jim Walker, director of Stop Tobacco Abuse of Minors Pronto (STAMP).
About 75 percent of young people say they are against smoking. The topic has become one of many that is moving teens to activism. Other issues are air pollution, forest clear-cutting, pesticide use, drunk driving, teen pregnancy, and alcohol misuse.
"There has been a resurgence of high-school activism and advocacy across a wide avenue of issues coast to coast," said Christine Kelley, a political scientist at William Paterson University in New Jersey and author of a book on social movements. "More and more teens are trying to end the image of youth as complacent and unengaged. They want the world to know they are a force to be reckoned with."
Some experts say the activism is a result of service learning that became part of school curriculums in the late 1980s. "The research is very strong that when American schools began adopting curriculum requirements that kids go into the world and learn by doing, that that has had a lasting effect on activism," said Stephen Medvic, assistant professor of government at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa.
David Smith, executive director of Mobilizing America's Youth, said the innocent, personal message delivered by young people is very persuasive. "When teens stand in front of legislators as a group which traditionally doesn't have much voice in society, they often bring the element of shock that the issues they are addressing are affecting the most innocent among us," said Smith. "That's something that professional lobbyists can't do as effectively."
Currently, teens are mobilizing to stop filmmakers from portraying smoking in movies as sexy, cool, and rebellious.
"Teens today feel like they are dealing with a lot more of these issues in their face than their parents did," said Yvette Childs, spokeswoman for the California Youth Advocacy Network. "But they also feel they have the advantage of new tools and ways to organize volunteers, harness their anger and passion, and show decision makers that they care."
Boston University School of Public Health 
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