SECOND
IN A
SERIES
EENS &
U SE T
Kids AND Booze
VICTORIA HARVEY IS A BALTIMORE’S CHILD INTERN and a high
school senior. As part of our series on teens and partying, we asked her
to interview other teenagers about their thoughts on drinking. Most of
the students interviewed are seniors or older, and at a point in their lives
when underage drinking is more accessible. For all teens interviewed, it
is an issue they have considered, whether to drink or not.

It has been a longtime American ritual for
teens and young adults to participate in
underage drinking. From drinking at parties
to “pre-gaming” before football games or
school dances, underage drinking is often
seen as a rite of passage. But is it a given?
Recently, I had the opportunity to talk
with some teenagers in and around Baltimore
and the Washington, D.C. suburbs to find out
their thoughts on underage alcohol use, and
immediately it was apparent that not all of
today’s teens engage in underage drinking.

High school senior Elyse, for example, says
she chooses not to drink because she doesn’t
“like the feeling of being drunk.” “It messes up
your functional system,” she says and is simply
something that has never interested her.

22 WashingtonFAMILY APRIL 2019
The Centers for Disease Control, in a
2017 study of risky youth behavior, found
that about 30 percent of high school
students had consumed alcohol within the
survey’s previous month, and 14 percent had
participated in binge drinking. Teenagers
BC spoke with gave a variety of reasons for
drinking. Some said it was simply to have a
good time.

“I drink at parties sometimes,” says Maria,
senior. “I’m not sure why, it’s just good.”
Another student said she started when she
was 16, “because I wanted to.”
Ethan, a freshman at Case Western
University, said he chooses to drink “because
I trust myself to know my limits” and added
that drinking is not a necessity to having
TEENS SHARE
THEIR VIEWS ON
UNDERAGE DRINKING
BY VICTORIA HARVEY