Teens Want Fame Through Pregnancy
Does being on television sound like fun? Maybe $60,000 for a couple months of work? Enough to get pregnant as a teenager?
Some are now suggesting that young girls may go out of their way to get pregnant so they can audition for the hit MTV shows 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom. Why not? It is just a baby right?
I have been following this show since the first season and one thing I have noticed is the abundance of young girls and boys who think parenthood is just going to be like playing house or a walk in the park. Once they actually give birth and start to take on midnight feedings, diapers, and going back to school, the tone changes.
One of my favorite writers here on Babble, John Cave Osborne, took on this topic in a Tuesday post on Strollerderby encouraging MTV to look into this trend and allegation. He said:
But to make celebrities out of young ladies who find themselves in the unenviable position of being pregnant teenagers? To glorify the role of teen mom by delivering such young ladies a platform which provides them fame and possibly, one day, even fortune, thus providing incentive for others to follow suit? It seems distasteful to me.
While I think these shows are truly trying to steer young women away from pregnancy and parenting at a young age, this is not going to be the message to all of the young teen girls who may have other underlying issues.
Do you think that MTV should look into this allegation?
photo: flickr.com/flequi
I think those making the allegation should look into the allegation… I still haven’t seen where it’s coming from. People have gotten pregnant on purpose for many other stupid reasons long before 16 & pregnant. Are they saying the pregnancy rate for 15-16 yr old girls has continued to rise since the first episodes aired? If these kids are dumb enough to get pregnant for tv, they probably would have gotten knocked up soon anyway.
Did this really need to be drudged up again? I’d like to see specifics and statistics, because I’m sure some attention hungry teenager got pregnant for the chance to be on the show, but I highly doubt it’s an epidemic. I think most points have already been made on John’s post’s comments.
I don’t think the kids even have to watch the show, they just have to go to the supermarket to see the 8 magazines with teen mom icons on the cover. I know the shows work really hard to portray the downside, they certainly don’t glamorize the lives these young women are soon living. It’s the D-list celebrity culture that turns these women into tabloid icons, gives them glossy photo shoots and a chance to rant nationally about their supposedly evil baby’s-daddy and his mama.
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