Hot Girls Can Drive

Hot Girls Can Drive

“Hot girls can’t drive”, is a popular phrase circulating through social media platforms such as TikTok. The phrase is typically used by teenage girls to excuse poor driving habits and perceive their unacceptable habits as normal. As a self proclaimed hot girl who doesn’t have the best driving record, I think it’s time to change the narrative. One reason is that my insurance is way too high and I’m on a college girl budget. However, the most important reason to change my driving habits is to protect myself, my passengers, and my fellow highway commuters. So to create safer driving habits, I will enact steps to eliminate everyday distractions such as texting, eating, and having too many passengers.

Being on my phone while driving is by far my biggest and most dangerous distraction. With technology being so prevalent in today’s society, it is almost impossible to do anything without a phone or laptop. Driving, however, is one activity that can and should be done without any technological distractions. Some steps that I can take to eliminate this dangerous distraction are keeping my phone out of sight and reach, putting my phone on “Do Not Disturb”, and programming my GPS before driving anywhere. Thankfully apps and companies like Apple and Spotify have settings that help prevent users from reaching for their phones when driving. Utilizing these settings and keeping my phone out of sight, prevents the need for me to reach for my phone because I will not have to fight the temptation to reply to text messages from friends and family. Programming my GPS before driving is another proactive change that I can make to drive safer. Programming my GPS before driving reduces the need to frantically plug addresses into my phone, and allows me to focus on the road ahead of me. I am also blessed enough to have a car that has Apple CarPlay. By using Apple CarPlay I can have directions displayed onto my monitor instead of having to look up and down from my phone. These small but significant changes can save not only my life but others’ as well.

Eating while driving is another bad habit that I have as a driver. As a teenager I lead a rather busy life. Most of the time I’m rushing from one event to the other, and want to grab a quick bite to eat. Unfortunately, instead of waiting till I get to my destination to eat, I allow my hunger to consume me and start eating while driving. This habit is extremely dangerous because instead of having two hands on the wheel I am driving with one hand and sometimes none at all. This leaves a huge possibility for me to lose control of my vehicle, which could result in an accident and or injury. One way I can ditch this awful habit is to hone my time management skills. By scheduling more time in between functions for fast food runs, I can satiate my hunger and eat my food while parked at my destination.

My last reckless habit when driving is having way too many passengers in the car with me. Now don’t get me wrong, I love to carpool with my friends. However, sometimes my friends can be more of a distraction than I would like to admit. With them fighting over the music, trying to show me videos, and their rowdy incessant chatter it can get pretty hard to drown them out and focus on the road. One way I can reduce this distraction without having to ditch my friends is to set healthy boundaries when in the car. One boundary I can set with my friends is that whoever is in the passenger seat controls the music and if you have a request you can add it to the queue. Another boundary I can set is asking for the speaking volume to be kept to a minimum so that I can hear my surroundings. By establishing and enforcing these boundaries when with my friends, I can keep them, myself, and the people around me safe, while still having fun.

In conclusion, reckless driving among teenagers is a deadly epidemic, and social media praising reckless driving doesn’t combat it. While I may only be one person, by making changes such as; eliminating phone, food, and friend distractions when driving I can make the highway just a bit safer. Hopefully, my positive behavior when driving can spread friends and loved ones and crue this treacherous pandemic. Ultimately changing the narrative by proving that hot girls can drive!