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Action on Smoking and Health
A National Legal-Action Antismoking Organization Entirely Supported by Tax-Deductible Contributions
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17 Yr Old Girl Campaigns Against Smoking in Movies and Selling Tobacco to Minors [04/13-2]
Excerpts from: Activism, preparation for Miss Teen Chinatown pageant and job crowd calendar of San Mateo High senior
By Mercury News [04/13/04]
Here's a glance at Ashley Hu's April calendar: Wear a cheongsam and perform a peacock dance one night, then fly to New Jersey 10 days later to scold tobacco company stockholders about the prevalence of smoking in Hollywood movies.
At 17 -- 18 next month she offers -- the San Mateo High School senior already has a history of social work, including trying to buy cigarettes as part of a youth club sting operation. It began about three years ago, when she attended a school club meeting where they discussed youth empowerment and tobacco.
``I knew tobacco had health problems, but they said it was a social justice issue how they target Third World countries,'' Ashley said. Growing up outside Shanghai, she saw it everywhere. ``Smoking, I thought it was normal. Everybody smoked in my neighborhood -- at home, at restaurants.''
Her paternal grandfather had died of lung cancer. Her father still smokes. In their native China, photos of a cowboy loomed from newspapers, magazines and billboards, said Ashley, who had ``thought America was like the Marlboro Man.''
Some of Ashley's classmates smoked too and were occasionally fined. The social group she belongs to -- Youth Organizing San Mateo County, commonly referred to as YO Mateo -- decided to organize stings to catch shopkeepers who were selling cigarettes to minors.
Ashley herself went to about 30 stores in San Mateo. Throughout the sting, teenagers discovered they could buy cigarettes about a third of the time.
``When my 13-year-old brother did it -- crazy -- he got some, too,'' she said.
Bolstered with statistics, the group persuaded San Mateo County last summer to raise the permit fees for selling tobacco from $25 every five years to $35 a year and make it easier to suspend those selling privileges if the retailer broke any laws.
Later this month, Ashley will speak at the stockholder meeting of Altria -- the company that owns Philip Morris, home of the Marlboro Man. Members of her youth group purchased shares so that they could attend.
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