Big health issues? Kids write the book

Karina Rosario wants to be a pharmacist. Denisse Tejada is inspired by her mother's fight against the AIDS virus. Osvaldo Caban Jr. remembers watching his mother struggle with alcoholism when he was a child.

These teens are three of the 12 young authors of the CHILL (Community Health Living and Learning) Health Guide , a cartoon-laced, straight-talking guide to a healthy lifestyle written ``for teens, by teens." They say their own experiences sparked their interest in health issues, and left them well prepared to author the 25-page booklet.

``All the research, all the writing -- we did everything," said Tejada, 18, who lives in Grove Hall.

The teens work as aides in health centers across the city for several hours after school Monday through Thursday in a career development program -- Health Careers Ambassadors -- run by the Hyde Square Task Force. Beginning last October, they gathered every Friday afternoon at the task force's Centre Street office in Jamaica Plain to brainstorm on how to convey a mature, but accessible, message about healthy living to their friends and classmates.

A community health fair was one early suggestion, but when one teen proposed a health guide, they saw an opportunity to make a more lasting impact.

``Why do a fair when everybody will forget about it? We did this, and it's still going around," said Caban, 19, who lives in Jamaica Plain and attends English High School .

So far, 500 copies of the health guide have been printed. It has been distributed at English High School and Brigham and Women's Hospital , included in a Boston Public Health Commission packet on diabetes prevention, and placed on reserve at the Boston Public Library.

``It makes me feel good that people are asking for it," said Tejada.

From an ambitious and lengthy initial list of what teen health issues to address, the group eventually settled on six, which they treat with two-page spreads of fast facts and resource contacts.

``They asked, `Why can't we do more?' I had to say, `No, it's already 25 pages. Make some choices,' " said Yi Chin Chen , the task force coordinator on college and career paths. Chen supervised the dozen teens during the nine-month production schedule.

One of the easiest decisions the team made was to give diabetes top billing.

``My family, my grandmother, my grandfather, even my mom has it," said Rosario, a 15-year-old student at West Roxbury High School . ``I know it goes by generation, so I have to know how to prevent it and what's the risk."

Other topics include mental health, substance abuse, sexual health, and domestic violence. Sometimes, the young authors conceded, the long Friday afternoons doing research on the Internet and the slow draft-by-draft writing process felt tedious. The most contentious moment was a debate over whether to include asthma or cancer as the sixth and final topic.

``There's a lot of programs out there for asthma; everybody knows about it," said Tejada. ``Cancer, a lot of people don't know about, especially young kids."

This year, Tejada and her colleagues have plans to write Issue Number 2 with updated information and a couple of new topic pages that didn't make it into the first edition.

The team says they hope the guide has done more than impress established health-care providers. They want to reach teenagers who often tune out doctors, teachers, and their parents.

``Parents, sometimes, they're up on their kid's case," said Rosario. ``But we made something good. We got the pride of seeing it come together."