It was only recently that I began to think about why people start smoking at such a young age. Already at fifteen, many people I know and many people younger have either tried smoking or smoke themselves.

I personally think that smoking is foul and after watching TV programmes about cancer and witnessing family friends go through cancer after having smoked for so many years, I still can’t gather why people start so young. A study has shown that teenage girls are twice as likely as boys to take up the habit but why?

Peer pressure has always been a key starter of smoking. Young people feel as if they have to smoke in order to be the same as everyone else and fit in but I don’t believe that this is as much of a main reason as everyone else does. Of course if you grow up in an environment where family members are smoking, you’re probably more likely to smoke yourself as that is what you have grown up with as well as that, many young children who suffer with emotional problems seek to smoke as an answer but I believe that this is wrong and these young people should be helped. Sometimes people my age manage to find shops that don’t I.D you and manage to get cigarettes from there!

I think that teenagers should be helped more to prevent them from smoking this because if they carry on it can affect their health for a very long time and can also affect the people around them.