For girls, pressures and expectations lurk everywhere. Find a boyfriend. Teenage girls are so vulnerable. If there's something that gives them a false sense of security, that makes them feel cool, like part of the crowd, they'll do it. They mask their anxiety by hiding behind a protective wall of conformity.
Smoking is considered by some girls to be the solution to their anxiety.
It turns out, however, that just the opposite may be true. Young smokers may be creating greater anxiety problems for themselves later on. In fact, new research links teen girls' smoking to the onset of anxiety disorders and sudden, unprovoked panic attacks when they reach their 20s and 30s. For many girls, cigarettes seem almost inevitable. She was just doing it to do it.