The darker side of teenage girls provided a research focus for two students from Stratford College, Dublin.
They found that a surprising number of girls were drinking, smoking and experimenting with drugs at an earlier age than in the past.
Yolande McCormack (13), and Alex Madden (12), both first years, discovered this behaviour was commonplace amongst Irish teenagers.
"Everybody thinks that teenage girls are only into shopping, but there is another side," said Alex. "They are starting to drink at a younger age than in the past and there is more drinking than smoking and taking drugs."
Yolande explained how they put together a questionnaire and asked three schools, including their own, to participate in a survey.
One school refused to take part, she said. They split the survey sample into age categories, 12 to 15 years and 16 to 18 years, and the results provided some surprises. "In the whole sample, 90 per cent of them had drunk before," Alex said.
Access to cigarettes was a simple matter for many students, despite the ban on sales to those under 18. "About 34 per cent can get them in shops," said Alex.
Nor are teenagers strangers to drugs, the students found.
Overall, 13 per cent of the teenage respondents had used drugs, the survey found.
