Hello! My name is Izabella DeLeon (Izzy), and I'm a Junior at Tyrone High School. The way I got into YAHL was my cousin Morgan and her friend, Mykenzie, introduced me to the program my freshman year. At first, I did not know what YAHL would become to me. I thought it was a fun program I'd use to skip class, but later on, however, we ended up having all these events that were so much fun. My sophomore year comes up, and I'm quick to sign up for YAHL again.  

This year, Mykenzie and Morgan did not join as they were seniors, so I took on the bigger role of planning/hosting our events and eventually got accepted to the leadership team. One of our programs we participate in is Counteract Tobacco. The reason Counteract Tobacco is so important to me is because I grew up with my grandma around me, smoking a lot. Now I have a mom who vapes, and I've had multiple friends who vaped and are addicted. I have seen the struggle these people go through trying to quit, and I've seen the struggle they can’t fight by not being able to go a day without their nicotine or cigarettes.  

Many people vape to be "cool," however, it's not cool whatsoever. Many deaths have even been caused by vapes being laced with other drugs that the user is unaware of. Vaping can cause cancer as well as have effects on your brain, lungs, and even heart. By making tighter tobacco/nicotine rules, we would be able to hold the people selling vapes to minors accountable. This issue will continue until we make tighter laws around nicotine and tobacco products.

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By: Izzy DeLeon, Tyrone High School