Teen Pregnancy Not All Happy

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	*Teen Pregnancy Not All Happy Smiles* Teen Celebrity Photos Don't Tell Whole Picture
	2008 is shaping up to be the year of the pregnant teen. Whether from a fashion mag, gossip blog, or respectable news source, it seems that every other week there has been headline news on the issue. That more than a million teen girls get pregnant each year is a given. The difference this year has been the response from the public. It has been either a cutesy fascination or a wide-eyed shock that lasts no longer than a hiccup. Early on in the year we saw Juno, starring newcomer Ellen Page, win an Academy Award. The film is about a teen girl who gets pregnant after having sex with her best friend just so they could both know what sex is like. Despite the fact the film skirts the "friends with benefits" issue, you still found

yourself rooting for the spunky Juno who deals with pregnancy in a disarming and responsible manner. Another unexpected hit a few months earlier was the crude comedy Knocked Up about a twenty-something single who gets pregnant after a drunken one night stand. Both films showed some of the consequences of the pregnancies, but also come to an end like a nice little package with a bow on top.

Shortly after this, Time Magazine coined the phrase "The Juno Effect" when scores of teen girls began to talk about how much fun it would be to have a baby of their own. Then we heard that a group of seventeen Massachusetts girls formed a pact to get pregnant together. Some of the girls even reported to be disappointed when they found out they weren't pregnant.

    While all this was happening, tabloids and teen mags were running constant photos and tidbits on Nicole Richie's and Jamie Lynn Spear's "baby bumps." Each photo showed an excited young celeb waving to an eager public more interested in the future babies' names than how the mothers to be were dealing with the reality that every part of their young lives were about to change.

    Suddenly being a teen mother has become cool.

    There has been the usual initial shock from parents but it has been fleeting. It's almost like parents too have gotten desensitized. It's become just a normal part of what they expect from teenagers. Typiclly when something becomes a hot topic, parents take to the streets. Whether it's drinking and driving, school violence, or gangs, parents are always ready to take action. But no so with this. It's been more of a whimper.

Figuring It Out Along the Way

As a result, teens are left to filter the movies and media on their own. In an interview with NPR, Jane Brown from the Teen Media Project said, "It is unusual that we would be glamorizing pregnant celebrities, and we don't even know who the fathers are..." But that's where we are now. Instead of the full picture, all we see is the cute baby and a celebrity mom whose body snaps back to normal in a few weeks.

Fast Facts on Teen Pregnancy
» 80% of teen mothers will rely on welfare at some point.
» Babies are more likely to suffer from low birth rate and higher mortality rate
» Over 80% of teen pregnancies are unintended.
» Boys born to teen mothers are 13% more likely to be incarcerated.
» Girls born to teen mothers are 22% more like to become teen mothers.
» 25% of teen mothers have another baby within two years.
» One million teen girls become mothers each year.
» Total annual cost to taxpayers for teen pregnancy is over $7 billion

No one mentions that movie moms were merely actors who've gone on to their next role. No one mentions that the teen celeb with a baby also has several nannies, a publicist, housekeepers, servants, etc. All the average teen mom has is herself. No one mentions the cost of the nutritionists, weight coaches, and gym instructors that helped celebs lose the pregnancy weight. And definitely no one mentions the loss of personal time, loss of potential, and loss of friendships that are likely. Instead, in the end Juno remains best friends with the boy and all goes back to normal.

Maybe even in real life Hollywood it's not that simple. Just this week there was a sad update on Jamie Lynn Spears' personal life. InTouch magazine confirmed that her fiance, Casey Aldridge, continued to have a sexual relationship with another woman while Jamie Lynn was pregnant. I wonder though if the news will get anything more than a yawn from the teen audience.

	Hollywood Takes Another Swing At It Even with it's shortcoming, Juno was a well done movie. It was great seeing Juno take responsibility for her actions and she showed much maturity in giving the baby up for adoption but I'm still waiting for someone to show us the whole picture. There have been recent attempts from Hollywood to deal with the issue on a broader scale. ABC Family struck gold with the summer's biggest cable hit, *The Secret Life of the American Teen, about a family whose youngest daughter gets pregnant. Though a teen soap, it featres parents that are not completely out of touch and the young mother to be is already experiencing some of the social consequences that come with being the pregnant girl at school. The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy has even created weekly Episode Discussion Guides that can be downloaded. Not to be outdone, NBC has been running The Baby Borrowers*, a reality show with five teen couples that learn what it's like to be parents. Much like Secret Life, Baby Borrowers isn't showing a glassy-eyed view of teen parenthood but rather the struggles to live this new identity and learn to deal with sleeplessness, self-control, and sacrifice.
Even with Hollywood doing a better job hitting the mark, this still doesn't give parents a free pass. We still must move into the broken parts of the teen culture to speak truth and share the freedom that come sex being experienced within God's design.

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Brian Housman

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