3 girls wanted to prevent rape - now their ingenious invention can save lives

The music at the party is loud. To hear what her girlfriend is saying, the young girl turns her head, and takes her eyes off her drink for just one second. And that's enough for someone to put something in her drink.

A guy who watched her waits for the right moment when she looks the other way. Soon after, she will begin to feel unwell and disoriented on her way to the bathroom. And that's the moment she's attacked.

Many rape cases occur when the victim is under the influence of drugs, something that Carolina, Susanna and Victoria, three high school students, wanted to put an end to.

They decided to think together and invent something that could expose potential attackers before they attack.

Susanna Capello, Carolina Baigorri, and Victoria Roca have not yet graduated from high school, but they already deserve credit for an invention that can save lives. The 'Smart Straw' is a straw that detects if there are drugs in the drink, warns potential victims of intoxication and prevents them from becoming victims of rape.

"This is a real problem that is growing day by day, our goal is to lower the statistics", Susanna Capello said.

GHB and Ketamine are the two most common 'rape drugs', and are often put into the drink of potential victims, making them unconscious, unaware of their actions and thus becoming easy targets for the rapists. Susanna, Victoria and Carolina's goal was to find a way to find out if anyone had put anything in the drink, as it's very difficult to keep an eye on the drinking glass all the time.

Because they are young girls who like to go out, they know that many men like to buy drinks for women. So they thought of a discreet way for women to know if someone 'handled' their drink or not.

The result is a straw that changes color to blue when placed inside a drink containing GHB (known as the "rape drug") or Ketamine.

"We had a great passion so we didn't stop until we succeeded", Susanna said.

The hard work paid off. The three girls won first place in the Miami Herald Young Entrepreneurs Competition. Their next goal is to patent the invention and start producing it to save women all over the world.

Young people are the future of the world, and it is people like Susanna, Victoria and Carolina who are making the world a better and safer place for all of us.