"Stop Targeting Kids" Premiere

This has been quite a busy week in Miss Teen news!

On Monday, March 8th, I attended a community screening of the television special “Stop Targeting Kids”. The event was sponsored by the Erie-Niagara Tobacco-Free Coalition.

Frequenters to the blog may remember that last March I spoke at the coalition’s legislative breakfasts and that I’ve going on legislative visits with the head of the coalition, Anthony Billoni. Mr. Billoni thought that I would enjoy the documentary, and that I might be a good addition to the panel discussion that followed.

The premiere was held at Shea’s Smith Theater. All those in attendance watched the show as it premiered live on Buffalo’s local channel 4, WIVB. The documentary was created by Dr. Peter Ostrow, the medical reporter for WIVB. In the special, Dr. Ostrow examines how kids and teens are targeted by Big Tobacco companies through movies and advertising. While I was familiar with the concepts, there were many things I learned that I was unaware of, including all of these new candy-like tobacco products flooding the market and the new role YouTube is playing in tobacco advertising.

After the special finished, the other panelists and I took our places on stage. I felt well out of my league, as the rest of the panel was made up of doctors and politicians. I was the youngest, and least experienced. Even though I was there solely to talk about teen tobacco use and my personal experiences with Reality Check, no one made me feel as if I didn’t belong. They were all very kind and complimentary. The only other girl on stage, and the only person remotely close to my own age, was a grad student from UB who has been studying the tobacco industry’s targeting of teens. She has a whole goody bag full of new tobacco products targeted towards teens that she collected during a cross-country road trip.

I spoke primarily about the efforts of my school’s Peer Wellness Pillar and my work with Reality Check. I also received a question from the audience about what the best method to deal with smoking in schools is.

All in all, the evening was a great success. It really raised my confidence level for my speaking engagement on Friday for the PINK DRAGONS. I could discuss that event hear, but the Pink Dragons really deserve their very own blog. Keep an eye out for that in the very near future!