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Report on SmartGirls Speak Out About Smoking
Smart girls decide for themselves™.
Demographics is a fancy word for "who took this survey?" So, without further ado: who took this survey?
A total of 207 people responded to our survey about smoking. 194 were girls, and 13 were boys.
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| Gender (Boy or Girl?) |
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| The tallest bar was the category that the most people chose. You can see the exact number of people in each group by reading the number right above each bar. |
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Most of the people who took our survey were 11 years old and older, with the highest showing coming from the 14-year-old age group. There were a few people who took our survey who were younger than 10. Some were even as young as 7 years old! There were also quite a few people who were 20 years old and older.
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| Age |
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| The higher the bar, the more people in that group. To see the approximate number of people in a group, draw a straight line from the top of the bar all the way to the left. The numbers up the left of the graph shows what each height means. |
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Like usual, most of the people who took our survey were oldest siblings, although many were youngests. Middle children and only children also took this survey.
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| Birth Order |
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| The larger the pie slice, the more people who chose that category. Pie slices that are near equal in size had nearly the same number of people in it. Half the pie would be half the total number of people who took the survey. |
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The most common countries where people who took this survey were from were the United States, England, Canada, Australia, Romania, South Africa, Wales, and India. Lots of other countries also had at least one person take our survey; check out the list of countries along the bottom of the graph below! Wow!
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| Country |
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| This graph shows where SmartGirls who took this survey live. The higher the bar, the more people who were from that country! |
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Smoking is illegal before age 18, but that doesn't mean that nobody does it. We asked our SmartGirl Readers to tell us when they started smoking--if they ever did. Almost 3 out of every 4 people who took our survey said that they had never, ever tried even one cigarette. For the rest, the most common age to try smoking for the first time was between the ages of 13 and 15.
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| How old were you the first time you tried smoking? |
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| The higher the bar, the more people who chose that category. The numbers on the bottom represent age ranges and the numbers up the side represent how many people were in each category. |
Supposing a SmartGirl did smoke, how often would he/she do it? Again, most SmartGirl readers never smoked a cigarette in their life. But for those who have, they tend to smoke either every day or only at social occasions.
We wonder why that is? We have a hypothesis: motivation to smoke is related to how often someone smokes. For example, someone who is motivated to smoke for image and style reasons is more likely to smoke with others. Someone who is motivated to smoke because of the physical effects is more likely to smoke alone. We suspect that social and physical motivations are the most popular. Hm! We wonder if our hypothesis is correct? We'd have to do an experiment to find out!
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| How often do you smoke? |
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| The bottom categories represent how frequently someone could smoke. The numbers up the side represent how many people chose each category. The higher the bar goes, the more people who are in that category. |
Sometimes, smoking feels less like an option and more like the option. If you don't smoke, maybe you don't fit in. How often do SmartGirls feel pressured to smoke?
We found that although most SmartGirls never feel peer pressure to smoke, almost 1 in 4 do feel peer pressure sometimes. 1 in 12 girls feel pressure to smoke often.
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| How often do you feel peer pressure to smoke? |
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| The larger the pie slice, the more people who chose that category. |
Some people smoke sometimes without considering themselves smokers. A lot of things are like that: I might cut my own hair once, but that doesn't make me a hairstylist!
We were curious. Does the percentage of people who say they never smoke change depending on whether we ask if they are smokers or if they are just social smokers?
Turns out that there are a lot more people who consider themselves social smokers than regular smokers. About 1 in 3 people still say they never smoke no matter what. But another 1 in 3 people say they're not sure yet what they would do. Perhaps they've never been in that situation before.
So, 1 in 3 SmartGirls would never smoke, 1 in 3 SmartGirls would consider smoking in a social setting, and 1 in 3 SmartGirls either already smokes regularly or are more likely to smoke in a social setting.
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| Even if you're not a smoker, how likely are you to smoke in a social setting? |
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Just because someone personally isn't a smoker doesn't mean they don't hang out with people who are. Another way to get an idea of how many young smokers there are is to ask our SmartGirls if they are friends with them.
This didn't change things much, though. Turns out that 98 SmartGirls who took our survey don't have any friends who smoke. That's almost half!
But 37% of SmartGirls do have a friend who smokes. That's over 1 in 3 SmartGirls.
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| Do any of your friends smoke? |
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| The higher the bar, the more people in that category. The number on top of the bar is the exact number of people who chose that category. |
Of those friends who do smoke, lots of them smoke every day. Other popular responses were several times per week and just socially.
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| How often do your friends smoke? |
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| The categories along the bottom show the frequency that friends might smoke. The higher the bar above the category, the more people who chose it. Bars that are higher than others have more people in that category. |
Why does it matter whether or not family smokes? Well, family can affect a non-smoker in a couple ways. First of all, the family might help a non-smoker become a smoker by buying cigarettes and role-modeling. Secondly, when a family member smokes near a non-smoker, they are sending second-hand smoke out into the air and into the non-smoker's lungs.
Happily, 88 of 207 SmartGirls don't have any family members who smoke. That's great for their lungs!
Unfortunately, 58% of SmartGirls do have someone in the family who smokes. That's over half! Some SmartGirls have 7 or more smoking family-members.
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| How many members of your immediate family smoke regularly? |
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| The higher the bar, the more people who chose that category. The exact number of people in each category is listed above the bar. The possible number of people in the family who smoke regularly is listed along the bottom. |
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When we asked SmartGirls whether or not you would change how much time you spend with someone if they were smoking, the answers were pretty spread out. over 2 in 3 SmartGirls say they don't like it when other people smoke around them, and over 1 in 3 SmartGirls say they would spend less time around a smoker. Still, almost 1 in 3 SmartGirls say smoking has no effect on how much time they spend with someone.
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| Does whether or not someone smokes affect whether or not you spend time with them? |
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| Options were either, "yes, I spend less time," "no, it doesn't change things," or "I don't like it, but I don't spend less time." Larger pie slices had more responses. |
We know that a lot of SmartGirls have never tried smoking before, but that doesn't mean they've never thought about it or that they don't know why other people do it. Knowing the reasons why people smoke is one way to help yourself figure out things you can do differently so you're not tempted to get started.
For example, one of the most common reasons why people might smoke (according to SmartGirls) is to lower their stress levels. A SmartGirl who is worried about stress might try other ways to de-stress instead, like exercise, meditation, or writing poetry.
The second most common reason to smoke, according to SmartGirls, is to fit in.
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| What do you think is the top reason why people smoke? |
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| To be cool, to relieve stress, to lose weight, to fit in, because htey like it, or something else. The higher the bar, the more people who chose that category. |
Some people love the smell of roses. Some people love the smell of gasoline. We all have our different tastes, but what do most SmartGirls think about the smell of cigarettes?
We found that 1 in 12 SmartGirls really does enjoy the smell of cigarettes.
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| If you smoke, do you like the smell of cigarettes? |
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| The larger the pie slice, the more people who chose that answer. |
A lot of the advertising and smoking in movies was paid for by tobacco companies in order to get people addicted--not just addicted to smoking, but addicted to their brand. So, how well did they do?
We asked smokers to tell us if they usually smoke the same brand. Unfortunately for advertisers, very few SmartGirls said yes! You can see how few by comparing the size of the "yes" pie slice to the entirepie. Now look at the "don't smoke" pie slice -- now there's a BIG chunk of pie!
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| Do you usually smoke the same brand of cigarettes? |
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| Pie slices of equal size had approximately the same number of people select that answer for this question. |
So, speaking of advertising: how do you feel about smoking after you see it in a movie, on TV, or read about it?
A lot of SmartGirls say it has no effect on them. What we thought was interesting was that there was a big portion of SmartGirls who said that seeing smoking in the media actually made them want to smoke less.
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| Does seeing smoking in the media affect whether or not you want to smoke? |
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| The larger the pie slice, the more people who chose that category. People could choose that it had no effect, that they were more likely to want to smoke, less likely, or unsure if there was an affect. |
Some people think that youth start smoking because they don't know yet how bad it is for them. All they are thinking about is whether or not it's cool. We weren't so sure about that, so we decided to ask!
Almost all SmartGirls got this answer correct. They agreed that smoking is very harmful, or at least somewhat harmful. Only 7 SmartGirls think that smoking isn't harmful at all. We hope they figure out the truth soon!
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| Is smoking harmful to your health? |
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| People chould choose a range from very harmful to not harmful at all. You can see how many people chose which category above. The higher the bar, the more people who chose that answer. |
Now, over and over again in this survey we've shown that most SmartGirls don't smoke. So maybe our SmartGirls don't smoke because they know that smoking is harmful. But we have some SmartGirls who do smoke. We compared our questions to see if SmartGirls who do smoke know that smoking is harmful.
We found that of all the people say that they smoke every day, nearly 1 in 5 believe that smoking isn't harmful at all! Uh oh, smokers. SmartGirls, if you know a young smoker who smokes a lot, maybe they just don't realize how bad it is for them. What do you think you could say to a smoker (in a friendly way) to let them in on the news?
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| Are people who smoke more often less likely to think that smoking is harmful? |
how often
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everyday | severalweek | onceweek | month | social | Never | [row totals] |
harmful
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| very |
37.50% | 25.00% | 50.00% | 50.00% | 47.06% | 82.74% | 74.41% |
| somewhat |
37.50% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 50.00% | 41.18% | 14.88% | 18.96% |
| neutral |
6.25% | 75.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 11.76% | 0.60% | 3.32% |
| notharmful |
0.00% | 0.00% | 50.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.47% |
| not at all |
18.75% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 1.79% | 2.84% |
| [column totals] |
7.58% | 1.90% | 0.95% | 1.90% | 8.06% | 79.62% | 100% |
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Do you like to walk out the door of the movie theater into a cloud of smokers? Do you think it's fair that you have to stand in the cold in the winter, several feet away from the warmth of the building, just to have the cigarette that you're addicted to?
We allowed SmartGirls to select where they think smoking SHOULD be allowed. They could pick as many options as they wanted to. We also let them fill in the blank in case we left anything out. Here's what some SmartGirls had to say:
* Smoking should be allowed in Neverland -- because smoking shouldn't be allowed! it should be illegal!
* There should be dedicated Smoking Rooms in buildings or specific areas of places.
* Only outside, but anywhere outside. Never inside... that's gross... just nasty.
* Only in specified outdoor areas.
* No public places, but it should be allowed in your home and your own yard. It's just not fair on others in public places.
* Smoking should only be allowed in isolation in a room with no windows, and definitely not around children.
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| Where should public smoking be allowed? |
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| For this question, SmartGirls could choose any many answers as they would look. Notice that "none" and "other" are options. The higher the bar, the more people who chose that option. |
We listed some of the harmful effects of smoking and asked SmartGirls to pick what they think is the worst one.
By far, most SmartGirls chose cancer. Following that, SmartGirls chose Lung Disease. Not very many SmartGirls thought the worst effects were bad breath, shortness of breath, or yellow teeth -- but those are still some of the effects of smoking!
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| Which is the most harmful effect of smoking? |
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| Cancer, bad breath, lung disease, yellow teeth, shortness of breath, and other were the options. The higher the bar, the more people who chose that option. |
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Smoking is addictive. How addictive? We asked SmartGirls to weigh in. SmartGirls agree: smoking is very addictive! How do they know? Scroll down to the bottom of the survey and read some of the free-write responses to why or why not SmartGirls smoke. Many SmartGirls have suffered along with family members who found it impossible to quit!
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| How addictive is smoking? |
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| Choices range from very addictive to not addictive at all. SmartGirls were also allowed to select "neutral/I don't know". The exact number of people who chose each response is written above the bar. |
Secondhand smoke is just as bad for a person as firsthand smoke, only (thankfully), other people just get less of it than a smoker. Do SmartGirls know that secondhand smoke is just as bad as firsthand smoke?
SmartGirls agree! Secondhand smoke is very bad or at least somewhat bad, SmartGirls say.
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| How harmful is second-hand smoke? |
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| Second-hand smoke is when someone smokes around you, but you're not the one smoking. It's the smoke in the air. The higher the bar, the more people who chose that category. |
If the reason people smoke is because they don't know any better or don't know just how bad smoking really is for a person's health, then how do we get people to learn?
We asked SmartGirls to tell us where they learned about smoking. Most SmartGirls learned about smoking from school, although quite a few learned at home. Sadly, 9 SmartGirls reported that they had never learned about smoking anywhere!
SmartGirls, can you prevent your friends from being one of those people who never learned about smoking? Raise the number of SmartGirls who learned about smoking from friends (5 in this survey) by talking about smoking with yourfriends.
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| Where did you learn about the effects of smoking? |
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| People could select school, home/family, friends, a doctor, a religious leader, or never. Notice that "religious leader" is not on the graph; that's because 0 people chose that option. How many people chose each option is listed above each bar. |
* I smoke because my boyfriend convinced me to.
* I smoke because it's fun!
* I don't smoke. I find it disgusting. A loved one of mine passed away from second-hand smoke. All of his children smoked and they smoked around him. He died of lung disease.
* I don't smoke because I'm too young to be at this stage. No one in my family smokes, but my Nonno (grandfather) died from smoking. I know someone in my class who smokes sometimes. I don't plan to smoke in the future.
* I don't smoke because I don't want to get lung cancer and cigarettes are really expensive.
* I have tried smoking but I don't understand why people do it regularly. I don't like the smell. I only smoke when socializing and very rarely.
* I never got to meet my grandparents because they both died from complications with smoking. They both smoked. One had lung disease and the other had a heart attack.
* I have a cigarette once in a great while. Mainly it's when I'm stressed.
* I smoke. It started out of curiosity, just to see what it was like. Now I'm hooked. I like the feeling and the taste.
* Smoking makes me feel more relaxed and calm.
* The last time I smoked was an experiment, but I didn't find it too appealing, so I stopped. I smoke sometimes socially with friends, every year or so at special gatherings.
* In a difficult period for me, I started smoking to make my stress vanish. Cigarettes don't seem as tragic as starting drugs, but believe me, it's just the same. You don't believe you're doing anything wrong to yourself, but you pain yourself in a longer period! Trust me, don't ever start smoking. It will ruin all your life. No problem is ever solved with a cigarette. If you smoke, you're not the IT girl, you're on the bottom!
* Smoking is NEVER safe, unlike alcohol. I'm thinking of convincing congress to ban smoking or at least change the minimum age to 30.
* First of all, smokers cough like crazy. It would hurt your lungs, make your teeth yellow. Also you get cancer, which people can't cure. So I don't smoke.
* My grandpa quit smoking in his 50s but still got lung cancer 13 years after that because he smoked since his teens. I never want to put my kids or family through that kind of heartbreak.
* I don't smoke because I like to keep healthy. Smoking is a big risk. Members of my family can't quit even though they want to.
* It's an easy way to start talking to people, so as a social lubricant it's extremely useful. But I don't want the image of a smoker and I don't want to be addicted to it, so I just do it socially but otherwise try to stay away from it.
* I smoked in high school because "everyone was doing it." Now as an adult I only smoke 1-2 times per year. It is unattractive, costly, unhealthy, and makes everything you touch smell bad. I hope most kids grow out of this hellish habit.
* I smoke but really infrequently because I'm underage and also I'm pregnant. I haven't smoked since I became pregnant. I also try to avoid places with smokers so that the second-hand smoke won't harm my baby. There is a no-smoking policy in my apartment. I think once I have my baby I won't have time to smoke and won't have money to pay for smokes either. I also want to make sure my baby isn't exposed to cigarette smoke.
* I don't smoke because it's disgusting.
* My parents would kill me if they found out I started smoking! So I don't.
* I have asthma, so it's already hard enough for me to breathe just walking near a smoker. Plus, smoking is inconsiderate to all the people I love in my life.
* My Dad used to smoke, but had to give up because his heart was getting worse and worse. Now that he doesn't smoke anymore, he's gotten a lot better.
* I'm too young to smoke, but the real reason I don't do it is because of my Dad. I see the way it affects him.
* My grandpa had emphysema and had a rotten life for years. He couldn't even walk across the room without sitting down again because he was so out of breath. Once he started cooking and the pan caught fire, but he couldn't do anything because there wasn't enough oxygen for him to breathe! If the neighbors hadn't noticed immediately, something really bad could have happened. I'll never smoke.
* If my friends don't like me because I don't smoke, that's their problem. They should like me for who I am.
* I only smoke when I see other people do it -- especially people on TV.
* We learn all the risks in school and it scares me. I don't want to be just another statistic.
* I barely smoke, and then it's only because I want to. It's like eating a flavor of ice cream you don't usually go for. Thankfully I'm aware of the problems and I do my best not to smoke and to explain to my friends why they should quit.
* I smoke now mostly because ... I'm addicted. I have smoked for a long time. It helps me to rid myself of stress. I'm aware that it's unhealthy and I'm trying to quit, but it's a difficult habit to break. I believe no one should ever start this habit, especially not at a young age like I did. I'm going to quit mainly for my health as well as to be a positive influence for others. And face it -- to not have to spend the money on the habit.
* I've never even had access to a cigarette to consider smoking.
* I tried smoking when I was 11 but I didn't like it. When I was 15, I started smoking occasionally to relieve stress. That was bound to get me addicted.. now I smoke 30 cigarettes a day. It's expensive...
* Smoking makes me think of the inside of you being on fire. Just going around my friend's mom who smokes gives me a nasty cough. I don't want that permanently to happen!
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Before you go, we wanted to show SmartGirls by age how many SmartGirls who took our survey do and do not smoke. Here's what we found:
100% of SmartGirls between the ages of 7 and 11 who took our survey NEVER smoke.
The percentage of SmartGirls who NEVER smoke goes down as age goes up; so while almost 95% of SmartGirls aged 12 never smoke, only 50% of SmartGirls aged 19 have never smoked.
At age 13, the reason to smoke is purely social. No 13-year-old taking our survey was smoking just to smoke occasionally.
However, at age 14, we begin to see some SmartGirls who are now addicted to smoking and smoke every day. The age group with the highest percentage of everyday smokers is age 16.
Check out the table below to see if you find any other interesting things.
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| How often do you smoke? |
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age
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6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22+ [22] | [row totals] |
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how often
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| everyday |
| 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 3.33% | 0.00% | 22.73% | 10.53% | 9.09% | 33.33% | 14.29% | 0.00% | 33.33% | 7.39% |
| severalweek |
| 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 6.67% | 3.85% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 9.09% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 1.97% |
| onceweek |
| 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 3.85% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 14.29% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.99% |
| month |
| 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 5.56% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 4.55% | 5.26% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 11.11% | 1.97% |
| social |
| 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 18.18% | 13.33% | 11.54% | 4.55% | 5.26% | 9.09% | 16.67% | 14.29% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 7.88% |
| Never |
| 100.00% | 100.00% | 100.00% | 100.00% | 100.00% | 94.44% | 81.82% | 76.67% | 80.77% | 68.18% | 78.95% | 72.73% | 50.00% | 57.14% | 100.00% | 55.56% | 79.80% |
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0.00% | 0.99% | 0.49% | 0.49% | 2.46% | 11.33% | 8.87% | 10.84% | 14.78% | 12.81% | 10.84% | 9.36% | 5.42% | 2.96% | 3.45% | 0.49% | 4.43% | 100% |
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| Each column represents the age of the number in it. Look down the column at the percentages to see how many people from each column smoke. Each row is labeled. For example, 100% of 11-year-old SmartGirls never smoke! |
Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts
with us!
Please remember that all web-based polls
are not scientific because the pollsters cannot randomly select the
respondents to participate in the surveys.
All our surveys are anonymous; check out our privacy
policy. All data copyright 1996-2007.
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