When we started high school, our mom was not really aware of vaping and many of her friends and colleagues were under the impression that it was just flavored water vapor. Adults were oblivious, e-cigarette companies took advantage, and teens are paying the price. This epidemic started without warning because the FDA was not regulating vaping and adults/parents were not paying attention, which allowed these companies to lure in teens. Now, millions of teens

are getting abnormally high doses of nicotine, a drug as addictive as heroin and cocaine ​as per the American Heart Association​. E-cigarette devices are shared at parties, in cars, in school bathrooms, at sports events, in parks, basically everywhere teens hang out. Teens are sharing different flavored nicotine e-cigarettes and some are sharing more than just nicotine. The e-cigarette device has turned into an easy to use and conceal device that can camouflage any drug in broad daylight. Teens could be inhaling marijuana or any combination of drugs without attracting any suspicion that they are using these illegal substances. We have also become aware that some teens don’t even know what is in the e-cigarette they are sharing. Anyone can alter the e-juice in vapes, meaning that teens would be unaware of the dangerous substances that could potentially be lurking in their vape.

We have witnessed what vaping can do and how it has changed the lives of several of our friends, first hand. We have a friend that was suspended from school due to vaping in the bathroom. We have a friend who went from being a straight A student to now almost failing. We have a friend that is now putting marijuana in her vape. These experiences are what motivated us to try to do something for our friends and community.

Social media has been a huge factor in our process of educating others. Not only does this platform allow us to share facts and information, but it has also connected us with people and their stories. These are the conversations that matter. Although social media has benefited us in the process of spreading awareness, e-cigarette companies have used this resource to hook teens on vaping. These companies targeted teens by using playful colors, back-to-school ads, and blissful users without a care in the world. We are combating the e-cigarette industry’s “cool” ads with the truth and facts.

With our ​Instagram account​, we’ve been able to answer questions one-on-one with vapers and non-vapers alike from across the United States of America. In one case, a teen asked us if lungs can heal after a person stops vaping. In order to answer this question, we got in contact with the director of ​You Don’t Know Nicotine​, Aaron Biebert, who was interviewing Dr. Stanton Glantz, a world-renowned scientist in the field of tobacco/e-cigarette research. He answered this question during the interview with Aaron Biebert, and we were happy to tell our Instagram follower that his lungs would heal as long as he stopped vaping and if no long term damage had been done already.

Another teen reached out to us and told us that he frequently vapes in his car. He said that he has to clean the inside of his windshield due to the oily residue left behind after he vapes. To think, if vaping does this to the inside of his car, then how much damage does vaping do to the confined space of his lungs? Who is cleaning the inside of his lungs? Vaping introduces unnatural chemicals that are inhaled and left in the lungs, which could lead to an oily residue similar to the inside of this teen’s car.

The main reason why we focus on teens is because we are teens.

Teens are still developing, and because of this, they can easily become addicted.​ Nicotine affects developing brains—it changes their chemistry and creates addicts for life. Becoming addicted to nicotine at an early age makes it nearly impossible to quit as an adult. This is the logic of vaping companies when they target the youth. We want teens to know the harmful effects of vaping and we want them to know that they are being used, taken advantage of, and lied to by these insidious e-cigarette companies.

We don’t want to be pawns in e-cigarette companies’ games of chess. They plan on kids becoming addicted to the nicotine in vapes and coming back for more and more, leading to lifelong customers. If we can educate teens on the known harmful effects of vaping, on the scary unknowns of vaping, and how it has already caused acute lung damage in teens, then we can slow down this epidemic and hopefully save teens from becoming lifelong nicotine addicts.

Through this journey we learned that advocacy is highly important and advocacy is one of VA2P’s most important roles. We know that our voices can make a difference and we want other teens to join us and make their voices heard. We don’t want to be pawns in their game of chess. We don’t want tobacco and e-cigarette companies to get richer while we get sicker. Teens should not be vaping nicotine, or any other substances like THC, CBD oil, or illicit drugs because lungs are not built to inhale these harmful substances, and they cause physical and emotional damage to teens and entire communities. Let’s keep this conversation going and become active in the fight against addiction and the e-cigarette industry.