A NORTH-East teenager has been chosen to represent the region on a national board which looks at the important issues affecting teenage girls.

Sarah Wilson, 15, of Edmondsley, near Chester-le-Street, was chosen to be the voice of the North on the Generation Wicked board - the first national teenage advisory board.

Top of the agenda at the recent inaugural meeting attended by Sarah were sex, drugs, alcohol, clubbing and bullying.

Sarah, a pupil at Sacriston's Fyndoune Community College, was shortlisted for the committee after logging on to Wickedcolours. com - the fastest-growing Internet site for 11 to 17-year-old girls.

After leaving her e-mail address and a brief description of the issues important to her, she was amazed to find herself shortlisted, and eventually selected, for the final 12-member board.

She said: "When I was picked, it was without doubt the proudest moment of my life.

"Thousands of people tried to get on to the board so it's a real honour to make the final group."

At a recent board meeting at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London, Sarah and her contemporaries discussed some of the biggest issues facing teenage girls in the 21st Century.

Among the topics aired were eating disorders, the age of consent to sex - including hopes to lower it to 12 years old - and a need for hard-hitting education on drugs and sex.

Sarah said: "Speaking to girls from other parts of the country was interesting because we all thought about the same type of things.

"I did get the impression that there are probably more drugs in the North-East than in other regions, though."

Sarah is waiting for her next call-up for Generation Wicked, which could see her travel to London in February next year for another meeting