Vaping blew up since I started high school, so I figured the numbers were only getting worse. But the good news is they’re not. According to NBC News reporting on the National Youth Tobacco Survey, youth e-cigarette use fell to its lowest level in a decade, dropping from 2.13 million middle and high school students in 2023 to 1.63 million in 2024. That’s about one third of the 2019 peak, when over 5 million kids were vaping.

After writing about my grandmother and smoking, this matters to me. Addiction to nicotine usually starts young, so fewer teens vaping now means less adults addicted to it later. It’s a reminder that prevention initiatives like education, regulation, and awareness can actually work over time. We’re not done, but it’s good progress.