News24 | Teen girls say they drink for vibes. But the morning after costs more than a hangover

• When researchers talked with dozens of girls and young women aged 15–24 across South Africa, they found drinking is on trend, as well as a social requirement – girls who refuse risk being teased or excluded by friends.
• Taverns and informal sellers make alcohol easy to get, even if you’re underage, while family drinking at funerals, ceremonies and after-tears means girls learn the habit long before they turn 18.
• This year’s budget alcohol tax increases and the advertising restrictions President Cyril Ramaphosa promised are the kinds of policies that work. But price alone won’t fix a problem deeply woven into everyday life.

A young woman from the Free State remembers drinking.

She remembers arriving home safely.

But what happened in between – how she undressed, how she got into bed – is a blank.

“When I wake up like that, I feel so ashamed,” she says.

“I ask myself, when I don’t remember what I have done, what other things have I done?”

The inflation-pegged tax increases of 3.4% on beer, wine and spirits, announced on Wednesday by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana, might be something that could encourage fewer young women to have mornings like that.

It’s backed by a consistent body of evidence: Raise the price, and people drink less.

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s budget speech:

Making alcohol more expensive, researchers have found, is one of the most effective tools available to reduce drinking.

The World Health Organisation’s Safer initiative, which was launched in 2018, advocates for it, alongside restricting advertising.

It’s something President Cyril Ramaphosa, in his State of the Nation address earlier this month, said government will also use to tackle the country’s drinking problem.

When we talked to 68 teenage girls and young women aged 15 to 24 across the country, it was clear why price alone may not be enough.

To understand what will actually work, you first have to understand the world in which these young women are drinking.

The girls and women we spoke with told us how alcohol is woven into the fabric of everyday life, from funerals and traditional ceremonies to Friday nights at the tavern.

Many say their generation drinks more than adults and that bingeing has become “fashion” and “trendy”, especially for young women.

Yet along with the “vibes”, drinking comes with headaches, liver pain, crushing regret, missed school and even financial debt.

READ | Organisation calls for drinking age to be raised to between 21 and 23

The interviews, conducted in isiZulu, Sesotho, Setswana, Afrikaans, isiXhosa and English, paint an intimate portrait of how alcohol use among girls has become normalised – even expected – and how social and economic pressures keep that cycle going.

Taverns on every corner – and rules nobody follows

Girls in the study describe just how easy it is to get a drink, even when you are under 18. Taverns, shebeens and liquor shops are a short walk away, and age restriction signs are often little more than decoration.

As one young woman in Mpumalanga explained, girls can often buy their own drinks:

Even when girls live in communities with more strictly enforced age restrictions, girls find a way to get their drinks, as one teenager from the Eastern Cape explained:

“It is very strict here … but we make super sure we get that alcohol … we do anything to get it.”

In areas where drinking venues are stricter, girls talk about “making a plan” to get alcohol, even when tavern doors are closed to them, which can mean turning to informal house sellers who do not care about age, “as long as the stock is sold out”.

Asking adults to buy alcohol for a small “tip” means that girls risk being cheated or exploited in the process.

‘I drink for vibes’ – fun, fashion and fitting in

For many girls, alcohol is not about addiction; it is about belonging.

Drinking with friends is framed as fun, fashionable and almost a requirement for social acceptance.

“Drinking alcohol is fashion, it’s trendy,” one young woman from Gauteng explains, echoing peers who say they drink “for vibes”.

Girls describe alcohol as something that makes it easier to talk and socialise.

It boosts confidence, makes them feel “alive, young, carefree and stress-free”, and gives them the courage to dance, talk to people and makes them feel like they “own the world”.

Social media amplifies these norms: Images of parties, bottles and branded drinks set the tone for what looks aspirational and “cool”.

A teenager from the Free State told us that girls who don’t drink might get teased and spurned by friends, “so you end up drinking, trying to prove a point”.

We used research on social influences – ideas that explain how a person’s thoughts, feelings, friends, family and community members influence their drinking – to make sense of the findings, showing that drinking becomes a way to gain status, signal that you are part of the group and avoid being labelled “stupid” or boring if you say no.

When girls believe “everyone else” is drinking, heavy use starts to feel like the norm rather than the exception.

When home is the safest place to drink

Alcohol is not only a peer activity; it is also a family affair.

Many girls say they drink with siblings, cousins, partners and sometimes older relatives.

In homes where adults drink regularly, girls describe copying what they see:

Drinking at traditional ceremonies, funerals, birthdays and “after-tears” is described as normal, expected and central to how communities mark important events.

The findings from our study show that this is a powerful form of learning by example: When alcohol is present at every key life moment, and drunk by the adults surrounding you, it becomes part of what “being grown” looks like, long before you turn 18.

Plus, drinking with family at home is considered safer.

Because girls are unsafe in public spaces, some caregivers actively encourage girls to drink at home rather than go out:

“My granny always says I should not go to the tavern if I don’t have money… because she knows what happens if girls go to taverns without money.”

The reality is that alcohol is a currency that men use to buy sex from girls who will do anything for a drink.

‘It was a temporary solution’ – alcohol as escape

Alongside the fun, a darker thread runs through the interviews: Many girls use alcohol to cope with grief, stress and depression.

Some girls told us that even though they drink to “forget about problems”, escape difficult family situations or numb pain, the escape from their emotions is short-lived:

Others describe mood swings and anger when they are drunk, followed by heavy emotional crashes the next day.

Girls know that the same substance they use to feel better leaves them more depressed, ashamed and mentally “messed up” afterwards.

But in communities where formal mental healthcare is scarce, reaching for a bottle feels like the easiest and most accessible solution.

The hidden costs: school, money and bodies

By the morning after, the “vibes” have a price – and girls know it.

The effects are not only physical, with pounding headaches, vomiting, pain and fear of causing long-term damage to their livers and brains, but emotionally, the girls told us they feel shame and regret.

Some nights you might black out – waking up the next day at home without remembering how you got there, what you did, and having to piece the night together from friends’ stories.

Economically, there is regret about money “wasted” on alcohol when they cannot meet basic needs:

“The following day, I have a lot of needs and my money got depleted on alcohol.”

Schooling takes a hit, too.

Girls speak of coming home at 04:00 and trying to be in class a few hours later, dragging through the day hung over, or eventually dropping out altogether.

Some link drinking to sliding into crime or transactional sex – “selling their bodies” – when money runs out.

Why ‘just say no’ will not work

Policies that focus only on individual “bad choices” miss the point.

Girls’ drinking is not a series of isolated decisions; it is shaped by poverty, gender norms, family patterns, marketing and the way communities use alcohol to celebrate, mourn and cope.

Here’s how we can address it:

Imagining a different kind of vibe

For now, South African girls are navigating a world where alcohol is everywhere: at home, in the street, on screens and in the ceremonies that anchor community life.

They are not niïve about the harms; their own words show a sharp awareness of the trade-offs they make each weekend.

What they do not have yet are environments that make it easy to choose differently: safer public spaces, real mental health support, youth-friendly recreation, and policies that take on an industry profiting from their desire to belong.

Until that changes, many will keep drinking “for vibes”.

The excise tax increases announced in this year’s budget, combined with the advertising restrictions President Ramaphosa promised, are exactly the kind of policies that have worked elsewhere.

This story was produced by the Bhekisisa Centre for Health Journalism. Sign up for the newsletter.