With a pounding heart, Leah leaned against the rugged makeup in the store and slipped two tubes of lipstick into her purse. He looks tired and isolated as he follows his friends Suki and Jill out of the store, but inside he feels panic.

"I can't believe you made me do this," Leah sobbed.

"Relax," Jill said. "Everyone does it What is peer pressure sometimes. And we won't let you."

She didn't say anything, but Leah knew she couldn't do it alone. He has been under a lot of peer pressure lately.

who are your peers?

If you are a small child, your parents will often select friends, put you in play groups or make appointments with children they know and love. Now that you're older, it's up to you to decide who your friends are and which groups you spend time with.

Your friends - your peers - are people your age or close who have similar experiences and interests as you. You and your friends make a lot of decisions every day and influence your choices and behavior. It's always positive - it's human nature to listen and learn from other people in your age group.

As you become more independent, your peers obviously play a bigger role in your life. Because school and other activities take you away from home, you can spend more time with peers than with your parents and relatives. You will probably form close friendships with some of your peers and you may feel so connected to them that they are like relatives.

In addition to close friends, your peers include other children you know at the same age - people in your class, choir, sports team or community. These peers also influence you by how they dress and perform, what things they do, and what attitudes they display.

It is natural for people to identify and compare with their peers when considering what they want to be (or think they should be) or what they want to achieve. People are influenced by peers because they want to fit in, to be like peers they admire, to do what others or what others have.