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Kevin's Story

On his parents:

"The big thing is: My whole family smokes. It's common for us after we eat dinner; we have a cigarette at our house. I smoke with my family. My friends are like, Oh my gosh your parents know, my parents would kill me."

On his girlfriend:

"I had one and she hated it. She used to try to get me to quit. She would take [my cigarettes] and throw them away. You are not going to quit just because someone throws them away. If you don't want to quit for yourself, you won't quit."

On getting the message that smoking harms:

"When I woke up and had to have a glass of water in the morning, I thought, Geez, I have to slow down."

On fears of cancer

"Yeah, I'm worried. You think about it every day. You do worry about it. You still think about it, even at my age. It's not like, Oh it's not going to happen to me. What scares me is being sick for that long."

Sarah's Story

On having cancer as a baby:

"People tell me I can't remember, but I do. It's so scary to think about. Imagine my parents. It was horrendous! I kind of feel like I dodged a bullet."

On starting to smoke:

"I had a whole bunch of friends who smoked, and I started smoking with them. Gradually, I started smoking more and more. At my worst, I smoked about a pack a day."

On parents:

"My parents didn't like that I smoked. I told them. My dad is an ex-smoker. He hasn't smoked since I was born. They were kind of mad at first. Then, after awhile, they said, Don't smoke around me."

On expense:

"I got tired of it. It was too much money. The cheapest pack I could find was $3.40."

On regret:

"I wish I had never started, but most smokers say that."

Ashley's Story

On losing her grandfather:

"I was 5 when my grandfather died. I remember him a lot, but I would've liked to have gotten to know him better. He was my baby-sitter. He lived down the road."

On losing her neighbor:

"[Two years ago] I lost another very close neighbor [to lung cancer]. That one I was more aware of. I saw her near the end. She smoked right up to when she died. We were very close."

On getting involved:

"I started to see more of the affects of it from people around me. [So, I joined] the Student Coalition Against Tobacco (SCAT) at my high school."

On how other teens react to her activism

"No one has ever said anything negative to me. They might have questioned me and wanted to learn more, but I never got a negative response. You get a lot of kids who want to join."

From Scholastic, Inc and the Scientists of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

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