Why young middle-class women like me love smoking

I like to smoke. I know what you’re thinking, but I’m not proud of it. I’m aware that it is obnoxious. It’s bad for all the reasons we all know it’s bad. And on top of that, smoking isn’t cool. It stopped being cool somewhere between 2014 and 2019. They’re expensive (£18 a deck), will send you to an early grave, and if you want to do it in public, you have to stand outside in the freezing cold, feeling pathetic. It has been “out” for about a decade. And yet.

A new study from UCL researchers has found that the number of younger middle-class women who smoke has jumped 25 per cent over the past decade. The study found that, while overall smoking rates have declined in the past ten years, the proportion of smoking women aged 18-45 from higher socioeconomic backgrounds has risen from 12 per cent to 15 per cent.

Interestingly, while middle-class women are smoking more, there was a drop in the proportion of less advantaged women of the same age, from 29 per cent to 22 per cent. Smoking rates among men of all backgrounds remained the same.

I am one of these middle-class female smokers, and if I’m honest, I’m not sure why I do it. I don’t smoke, smoke. I will have one or two if I’m stressed or upset, perhaps one after work. I’ll chain them in the pub garden. On holiday after getting off the plane and waiting for the taxi. Like most people who didn’t get the memo, I smoke because I haven’t found anything better to replace them with. I like the ritual of being alone and inhaling; breathwork’s evil twin.

At 27, it is a habit that has seen me out of step with my friends. When we were teenagers we all smoked. Growing up in Yorkshire, most of my age group seemed to smoke roll-ups or a packet of ten for £3. It was categorically cool.

Then all of a sudden, it wasn’t. In my first year of uni, I met some smokers, although I noticed there seemed to be a divide: it was only the girls from London who joined me in the smoking area, and a few northern friends. But it was mainly left to the men.

Then, as we graduated and got jobs, my female allies dwindled. One by one those who smoked throughout school either grew up and gave up or replaced the smoking area cig with a cheaper, fruiter, vape. My smoke trips were met with an eye-roll: Have you not given up yet? I’d traipse out, alone and abandoned.

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So in a twisted sort of way, I feel vindicated to learn that I fit into a growing cohort of other middle-class women who smoke casually but not really that casually. The researchers of the study don’t know why we are seeing this trend. Dr Sarah Jackson, the lead author of the research, said: “We don’t know why younger affluent women are smoking more,” she says. “Future studies could explore whether social media may be increasing uptake in this cohort, or whether they are less able to use strategies or support to avoid long-term relapse […] We need to do a lot more research to find out.”

As one of these smokers, I have a few theories of my own. I don’t believe many middle-class people grew up feeling the impact of smoking. I certainly didn’t. According to Cancer Research, from 2013-17, lung cancer incidence rates in women are 174 per cent higher in the most deprived areas of England. In men, they are 168 per cent higher.

Young middle-class smokers like me might not have grown up with parents who smoke. They might not have seen first-hand the impact lung cancer can have, or the death of a parent who smoked 40 a day. Instead, they see the glamour of Kate Moss with a fag falling out of her mouth and think, that could be me.

For posh people, cigarettes have always been a bit more socially acceptable. Middle-class addictions are “interesting”; they add an element of glamour that feels rebellious, without being out of control. They add a fun sort of chaos to an otherwise comfortable life.

For a long time, smoking was successfully de-glamourised. But now, in the wake of the pandemic, poor mental health in young women and the availability of vapes, there is a cohort of young people who are seeking out nicotine and stress relief. Middle-class people, the ones who can afford the eye-wateringly expensive price of straight cigarettes, have simply forgotten how bad they were supposed to be.

And for those women who can’t afford to dull themselves with cigarettes, vape addiction is even higher. According to the Office for National Statistics, the number of young women vaping every day in the UK more than tripled in the last year, and vape sales remain at an all-time high. Nicotine, then, remains incredibly popular. The only difference is how we are all consuming it.

I do plan to quit. I had planned to quit on my 25th birthday and failed swiftly the next day. I now plan to quit on my 30th, as a present to me. A clean slate to make way for my sensible years. My friends vape on in confusion.