Turning Awareness into Action: Youth Leadership and Peer Pressure Prevention

Artwork by Chelsea Aguilar, CSUCI student.

Written by Eileen Parnami, Miss Teen Simi Valley 2025, BRITE Youth Advocate Leader, and founder of the Women in STEM & Health Equity Initiative.

What started as a simple observation at school turned into a project, an event, and eventually an official BRITE youth-led initiative.

At school, I saw how often students had a hard time dealing with peer pressure. This happened in clubs and during important decisions involving academic integrity, friendships, leadership roles, or moments when students felt pressured to act against their values. I noticed that many students never really learned how to recognize when they were facing peer pressure or how to handle it in healthy ways. Instead of just noticing it, I decided to take action through BRITE Youth Advocacy.

I began by researching peer pressure, youth decision-making, and how awareness can change behavior. I turned that research into a formal proposal and presented it to my school administrators and the district to request approval for a Peer Pressure Awareness Day at Hillside Middle School, which we received! The goal was to help students at Hillside Middle School understand what peer pressure is and how to deal with it in a healthy way. I wanted the students to know what peer pressure looks like and how they can handle peer pressure when they see it. The main idea was not just to discuss the issue, but to provide students with real tools they could use in their lives and in everyday situations.

The BRITE Youth project did not stop after the event ended. I shared the research, the planning process, and the results through BRITE so the message of my project could reach beyond one school campus. This work with my BRITE Youth project also led to earning the Civic Engagement Seal, which recognized the connection between the research and community impact of my BRITE Youth project.

As I was doing this project, I figured out that telling people about what I was doing is just as important as doing the event. This blog post is my step in writing down what I did with the project so other students can learn from it and feel like they can talk about what they think, and see that what students say can make a real difference when we have facts to back it up and take action. I also created an interactive game for the BRITE Futures Initiative Youth Coalition and recorded a podcast episode to continue spreading awareness in different ways.

Through BRITE, I am now developing a Women in STEM and Health Education Initiative focused on empowering young women, raising awareness about celiac disease and women’s health, and creating STEM opportunity workshops and resources for students. This project is still growing, but the mission is the same: make important information accessible, relatable, and student-led.

With the support of BRITE, this work is now becoming an official BRITE youth-led initiative. I learned that you don’t have to wait to be older or have a title to create change. If you see a need, you can start with one idea, one proposal, and one action. Sometimes, that’s enough to start something that lasts.

To learn more about our BRITE Futures Initiative and to join our Youth Coalition, visit www.briteyouth.org/bfi. To learn more about our BRITE volunteer opportunities, visit www.briteyouth.org/engagementopportunities.