There's going to be no slowing down or cautious driving unless adults stop trying to tell teenagers what to do.

Instead kids need to be part of the process according to Chantel Barnshaw, 16, who should know because she lives on Olive Bank Drive, Warwick, near one of the most accident prone stretches of Middle Road in Bermuda.

She is also on the cusp of owning her bike, which she will be $250 closer to riding after her essay on 'What My Country Means to Me' touched on the topic of violence in Bermuda and received first place in the English Speaking Union (ESU) contest.

The ESU is an international volunteer organisation which promotes understanding and friendship among the English speaking peoples of the world. Mary Hopkins, chairman of the ESU Essay Committee, said they struggled to decide the winner, but Chantel's did a good job of expressing how she felt about her country.

She said: "It was partly on content of the essay. I thought she expressed her feeling for her country very well. We asked each school in Bermuda to submitted a winner for the contest. The head office of the ESU sent us a notification of the contest because they are going to publish it at the international conference in Scotland in the summer."

Before it every reaches the Scottish shores, though, Chantel, of Bermuda High School, became a published author this week when her essay was featured in this paper on Wednesday.

One of the topics in her essay is the loss of life and especially violence that she says doesn't worry her too much because she knows the Bermudian community will pull through. But then she watched friends like 17-year-old Miguel Franco who died following injuries sustained in a bike accident, the issue became that much closer to her.

It also means even when she saves enough for the People bike she wants, Chantel won't be part of the third lane.

She said: "It would probably be better if we had young people talking to young people. They won't express themselves if it is adults.

"I think if more young people were involved and it's not parents saying you need to stop it would be more successful. Youth coming together and trying to stop it together rather than being told to stop. I wrote the essay before Miguel and the accidents, but I have seen a lot of accidents even a car that flipped."

Her essay was an assignment for her English class and speaking to The Royal Gazette yesterday she said the freedom she is given in Bermuda was the most important topic for her. In her essay she writes: "Freedom. I wake up every morning knowing that I can walk out of my door with a tee shirt and shorts, and no fear of what the day will hold for me.

"I know that I am able to voice my opinion, wear what I want, and have the friends whom I choose, without having to be told this by Bermuda's government. Women all around the world live in fear, are told who they are to marry and where they are allowed to go. Unfortunately, however beautiful their country may seem, their country means restraint."

Watching events unfold on TV and hearing about women forced into marriages around the world is why Chantel says living in Bermuda makes her fortunate. But this freedom must be closely guarded and the aspiring feminist hopes that she can work with different organisations to help bring even further equality between the genders.

She said: "Because I see on the news every day women have to dress a certain way and how they are told who to marry and just a little while ago one man was able to marry a bunch of women.

"I picked freedom because I see do many things like women being raped and not being able to do anything about it. I'm glad in Bermuda we can put those people in jail and dress the way we want to.

"I believe in equality I am trying to look more into that, like the Women's Resource Centre."

Her essay had been chosen by her English teacher to represent BHS in the English Speaking Union (ESU) competition and beat out submissions from the other high-schools on the Island.

On Monday, Chantel was presented with her prize at a dinner and her essay was published in full in the paper on Wednesday.

The runner-up, Aysha DeSilva, a student at Berkeley Institute will be honoured for her essay at a presentation on Tuesday morning. But writing is probably not Chantel's next enterprise because it is something she does when she feels inspired and is not something she can force herself to do.

The 16-year-old hopes to study psychology, though she still has two more years left at Bermuda High School for girls as she sets to enter the IB course next year. Then she wants to pursue her studying at colleges in Canada, but like she said in her essay leaving her country for too long is never easy.

She writes: "I can't help but miss my country when I travel on vacation during times such as summer vacation. It's hard to get used to swimming in grey water, breathing in polluted air and having to fight with crowds just to pick up a carton of milk, when I'm not used to any of it.

"Although sometimes I do feel as though Bermuda is isolated from the rest of the world, and the summers are almost unbearable, I can only pity the people who have to live everyday seeing only snow, hail and rain. If there was one place I would choose to live and start a family, it would be Bermuda by far. Mothers and fathers don't have to worry about the safety of their children in school, catching the bus, or walking through town.

"Why? Because Bermuda is somewhere where our citizens almost feel like a family, where everybody knows everybody and people care for one another, even if you have only just met them."