Cigarette smoking is a behavior with profound biomedical and psychosocial consequences across the life span. Although it is advertised in terms of youth, beauty, sexual appeal, success and independence, smoking is intimately linked with addiction, disease and death. Smoking has been shown to be a leading contributer to several kinds of cancer, lung disease, and coronary heart disease. Although smoking has been tied to the evolving role of women in Western society, it carries a heavy responsibility in terms of potential damage to unborn babies. Smoking behavior often begins in adolescence, when disease seems only vaguely related to everyday life. An examination of gender-specific statistics shows that females exceed males in a lifetime prevalence for smoking as well as for smoking 10 or more cigarettes a day. It has been suggested that teenage girls start smoking in an attempt to adopt a set of valued personality characteristics pictured in cigarette advertising. A deeper understanding is needed of what specific physiological and psychological variables lead girls to take up regular smoking. (JAC)