Get the message? Help prevent distracted driving.

A teenage girl slips behind the wheel of her silver convertible, but before she starts the engine, a text comes in from her dad: "Turn off your cell phone ... " She smiles and nods her head while the camera, now positioned behind the car, suddenly pulls out to reveal the warning "BUCKLE UP" scrawled in big, bold yellow letters on the driveway's blacktop. Even the neighborhood kids have advice for this young driver, as a girl standing next to a lemonade stand holds a red poster that reads, in all caps, "NO EATING WHILE DRIVING." So ... message received? An 11th grader from Canandaigua, New York, named Olivia Yavorek hopes so.

In an effort to actively engage viewers with the public service announcement (PSA) that she created for the 2013 Drive2Life Contest, Olivia set her sights on crafting a simple message about preventing distracted driving. "As teenagers and humans we tend to think we are invincible, that nothing bad will happen to us," she said. "It only takes a fraction of a second for the possibility of your life changing forever."

More than 1,300 students in grades 6-12 from across the United States entered the Drive2Life Contest, sponsored by the National Road Safety Foundation (NRSF.org) and developed with Scholastic Inc. Each student who submitted an entry was tasked with creating a storyboard, script, or treatment for a PSA that demonstrates tips to prevent distracted driving. For an idea that Olivia called "Safety Signs," she took home the Drive2Life Contest's grand prize--S1,000 in cash, a trip to New York City, and the opportunity to have her PSA professionally filmed and produced.

Communicating a compelling, creative concept was job number one for students like Olivia. "I wanted ... the viewer to become active in the PSA by reading the messages," the Drive2Life grand prize winner said. "I wanted to include family and show that you should think about those who worry about your safety." A spokesperson for NRSF, David...