PEER PRESSURE

Kids discuss controling own lives instead of yielding to friends.

Picture yourself on the phone with one of your friends, and he wants you to go to a party. You say, "No thanks." But he talks you into going.

When you get there, you see people drinking and smoking. Your friends ask you to try some. But what do you do? Do you say yes, even though you don't want to? Or do you say no, feeling uncool and leave?

Peer pressure begins early in life. Young children may feel pressure to own Nintendo and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles products, then maybe a 10-speed bike.

The stakes get bigger and more serious as we grow older. We may be influenced to change the way we dress or the clubs we join. We also might be encouraged to try booze or drugs.

Last year, Project XL - a contest funded by Farm Bureau Insurance in cooperation with the Indiana High School Athletic Association - encouraged high school students to take a hard look at peer pressure and to use their talents to express their ideas on the subject.

More than 2,000 students submitted entries to Project XL in one of six categories: writing, video art, poster art, original music, performance or speech, and fine art. Each category winner received a trophy and a $1,000 scholarship.

Children's Express went to the Project XL state finals at the IUPUI Conference Center Auditorium last spring. There, we interviewed various contestants, including three winners: Amy King, 18, from Northfield High School in Wabash, who took first place in the music category; Janette Luu, 17, Fort Wayne Snider, who tied for first place in speech; and Megan Cartwright, 17, Muncie Central, who was the writing winner.

What follows are their thoughts on peer pressure.

AMY KING: "Peer pressure is anything that somebody else can try to manipulate you to do, whether it be good or bad."

MEGAN CARTWRIGHT: "Peer pressure can be anything from dressing the same way, trying drugs and alcohol, to just acting like the crowd."

JANETTE LUU: "I would say it's when someone tells you to do something that you know isn't right."

AMY: "Peer pressure affects the way I live. It's just day-to-day life because there's always some type of peer pressure around you."

JANETTE: "We have so many different kinds of people (that) there's no way you can avoid peer pressure. It's just part of life."

MEGAN: "Peer pressure affects the way you live life, if you let other people's decisions and pressure on you determine what you're going to do."

AMY: "I find a lot of times that I just want be like everybody else and just do what everybody else is. You're more comfortable when you feel like you belong."

MEGAN: "Sometimes my friends will just ask me to do something that I do not feel is quite right. And I just have to say to myself, `No I don't want to do this,' and you just have to be strong enough to say, `I'm not going to go along.' "

JANETTE: "I have a friend that's always trying to get me to do things with her. It's not that it's negative things, but I just choose not to do it, and so that's how I've dealt with peer pressure. . . .

"When people think of peer pressure, they automatically think negatively. But I wanted to say that positive pressure does exist."

AMY: "Positive peer pressure (is when) your friend would ask you to come visit somebody that's sick and you do it. They say you really should do it because it would help the people."

MEGAN: "If you can be yourself for a while, you can figure out who you are and then you can handle peer pressure, once you know who you are."

AMY: "If people would take the time out to understand other people's feelings, they may not try to pressure (someone to do) things they want to do."

MEGAN: "You need to decide what your own ideas are . . . to not just always do what everybody wants you to do."

JANETTE: "Just stop and think about what will happen if you give in to peer pressure before you do anything. Don't do anything that you don't think is right."

AMY: "Individuality is important because if everyone was the same, it would be a really boring world."

EDITED BY: Tanisa Strong, 16