ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, May 5, 1996 TAG: 9605060139
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-7 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: LOVINGSTON
SOURCE: JEAN McNAIR ASSOCIATED PRESS
DON'T LET ADVERTISING lure you to drinking and smoking, college students warn Nelson County teen-agers in an afterschool prevention program.
After most students at Nelson County Middle School had left for the day, about a dozen girls remained in a classroom with their chairs pulled in a circle, waiting for that day's lesson.
They were seventh-graders, some already wearing makeup, most clad in blue jeans and all giggling at some point as University of Virginia graduate student Karen Beardsley tried to get their attention.
``I know you guys hear a lot about `don't use cigarettes' and `don't use alcohol,' but also we're teaching you all how to sort out the messages yourselves,'' Beardsley said as she started the lesson on advertising.
She's teaching to a tough crowd, teen-agers who are easily influenced by their peers and the ads for cigarettes, alcohol and designer wear they see in magazines and billboards.
Girlspeak, a pilot after-school program launched this year, aims to steer young teens away from smoking and drinking just before they reach the age when they're likely to start.
``Our kids are getting too much, just so much advertising, so much promotion of drugs and alcohol use and tying it in with looking so provocative and grown up,'' said Susan Grossman, the project director at UVa's Institute for Substance Abuse Studies. ``They are subject to so much, and their judgment is so immature.''
The number of young teen-agers who smoke has been rising steadily, prompting laws to curb their access to cigarettes in vending machines and on store shelves. Last year, an annual University of Michigan survey of 50,000 students found that 46 percent of eighth-graders had tried cigarettes.
The institute received a $164,000 federal grant to try its pilot program with about 150 seventh-grade girls in six schools in Charlottesville and Albemarle, Nelson, Louisa and Orange counties.
Girls who volunteer for the program meet once a week after school with a graduate student and a high school senior to talk about marketing techniques, advertising and how teen-agers are portrayed in the media.
New studies show that teens are as influenced by the media as they are by their peers, Grossman said. Especially in rural areas, young teen-agers lack after-school activities with adults who are good role models, she said.
``Young girls go home and they're alone and they have Ricki Lake to teach them about life,'' she said.
Beardsley's group even planned to write to Lake's television talk show to complain about its emphasis on misbehaving teen-agers.
``It's simply not true. So I want them to write letters and say, `Hey, this is the way we are,''' Beardsley said.
While one 13-year-old in the class told a visitor she has been smoking since she was 12, other girls insisted they would never start. ``It's nasty and disgusting and you can die from it,'' said Brandi Lang, 12.
Brandi said she considers the class a chance to have fun with friends, whom she counts as more influential than advertising when it comes to deciding whether to smoke or drink.
Mimi Hill, a Nelson County High School senior helping teach the class, said programs like Girlspeak may help some teen-agers stay away from drugs and alcohol.
``I was skeptical at first,'' she said. ``But by the second day, everyone was talking.''
The pilot project has been plagued by weather-related delays, disruptive students in some classes and a lack of money for follow-up programs, Grossman said.
``Despite everything that has gone wrong, some of the groups have really jelled,'' she said.
If she can get more funding, Grossman hopes to continue the program for this year's participants and start with a new group of seventh-graders as well.
``Prevention takes a long time,'' she said. ``People want instant results in this country.''
LENGTH: Medium: 78 linesby CNB