Malcolm Gorrill
Northern News Services

Inuvik (Oct 27/00) - Dayna Lennie is a model for her peers, literally.

The local teen appears in a graphic anti-smoking poster titled, "It's your life, you decide" that pictures Lennie and organs damaged by smoking.

"When I saw it I was just like, 'oh my goodness,' because it was really graphic," Lennie said. "I didn't think it would be that shocking."

"I look so gross, but I'm glad. It's warning youth about what can happen."

Lennie's mother has one of the posters on the wall where she works and when kids see it "they go, 'ooh, I'm never going to smoke.' People are really shocked," Lennie said.

"They didn't even notice it was me until they looked at the little picture at the bottom," she said.

The poster has been distributed throughout the Northwest Territories and Alberta, "so I think it's caught a lot of eyes," she said.

"I'm really happy about that, too."

Lennie has never smoked and said she has given "a pretty hard time" to her smoking friends.

Since last November, Lennie has served as the NWT representative on the national Youth Advisory Committee. She was asked to appear in the poster earlier this year.

Lennie has seen new tobacco packaging that will soon be released to consumers. She described it as "way more graphic. They have pictures on them; the labels are now going to be half the size of the package," she said.

In November Lennie will travel to Ottawa for another meeting of the committee.

The website for the Youth Advisory Committee is www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hppb/tobacco.yac.