"Mom, Pop... I’m pregnant." The teen mom has long been
a subject of controversy, fear, and shame in pop culture. Here are the hallmarks
of the teen mom narrative onscreen: Her unexpected pregnancy
is a shock that makes her feel her life is over. "My life is over!
I might as well jump!" She’s likely shunned or
ridiculed by her community, "You are backsliding
into the flames of hell." "You've become a magnet for sin. We've all witnessed it!" and has to sacrifice some
of her childlike innocence to face this accelerated
onset of adulthood. "Where have you been?" "Oh, just out dealing
with things way beyond my maturity level." In the end, the teen mom
takes an untraditional, more challenging,
route in life-- but she can represent
the value in forging a different yet meaningful
path for oneself. "I know people are supposed
to fall in love before they reproduce.
But I guess normalcy isn't really our style." Her pregnancy can
even be a metaphor for all the potential she has
to bring into the world: "My ultimate inspiration
comes from my best friend. The dazzling woman from whom
I received my name and my life's blood,
Lorelai Gilmore." For decades, depictions
of teen pregnancy onscreen were tragic, cautionary
tales, often made to encourage abstinence. The figure has also
long carried class and cultural connotations;
historically teen moms have more often been
women of color and of lower socioeconomic status, while stories painted
teen pregnancy as a horror that’s not supposed
to happen to white women of a certain class. "Do you think I’m the first
girl that's ever had an illegitimate baby?
It happens every day!" "[Slams table] Not in
my house, it doesn’t!" Starting in the 2000s on,
this trope pivoted as the teen mom character
could be independent, light-hearted and
anything but doomed. More recently, some even fear
the teen mom is becoming "glamorized" in the wake
of a boom in teen-mom reality-TV shows, and the
high-profile pregnancy of 19 year-old Kylie Jenner,
who long aspired to young motherhood. "I can’t wait to be a mom
even though I’m 15; I would love to be a mom." Here’s our Take on
the Teen Mom trope, how she mirrors our
changing attitudes, and why she’s stuck
with the burden of representing the future
of her whole society. If you're new here,
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to get 10% off BetterHelp today. The idea of being a teen mom
wasn’t always a shock. "She hath not seen the change
of fourteen years. Let two more summers
wither in their pride, Ere we may think her
ripe to be a bride." "Younger than she
are happy mothers made." Before the 1800’s,
many women married as teens, and typically had children
shortly after. But by the turn
of the 19th century, the average age for
first-time motherhood had crept up to 23 years old. Fast forward to the rise
of second-wave feminism around the 1960s, "They are conditioning us
to take the place of, say, the average housewife." and more women were
prioritizing careers, starting families later
or not having them at all. "Don’t forget to
take your pill." "[Both at once] I won’t." [Audience laughs] Childbearing rates
started to decline among American women
of all ages, but not as quickly for younger women.
So a misreading of this data (and an increase in birth rates
for unmarried women overall) led to a moral panic
about a supposed teen pregnancy "epidemic"
that was reflected in pop culture preaching
the dangers of premarital sex and the life-ruining road
of teen motherhood. "Teenage Mother!
Means 9 months of trouble." The late 1950s and ‘60s
saw the rise of cautionary tales to warn teens about the
risks of premarital sex. 1959’s Blue Denim highlights
the crippling responsibility and lack of freedom
that two teens face as a young couple with a baby. "How did you wind up here,
half-frightened to death, with no one to turn to
but the boy who got you into trouble?" 1960’s Too Soon To Love
and 1967’s Teenage Mother sent the same lesson:
young women who have sex—- or even learn about having sex—-
will wind up on a “bad” path that will derail their
"bright futures." "This girl is running wild!" Adoption wouldn’t save
the teen mom, either. After the pregnant young woman
in 1970’s The Hard Road drops out of high school
and puts the baby up for adoption, she falls prey
to the allure of sex, drugs, and rock and roll,
ending up on a dangerous and lonely path. "How much?" "Uh...forty.
Forty dollars." Coming off the heels
of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision in 1973,
a few stories started to show young women
choosing to have abortions in a way that wasn’t
necessarily tragic, but a matter-of-fact
part of life. "I got that plan.
Um, it's going to cost $150 at the free clinic." "Doesn't sound free to me." After shifting attitudes
toward sexuality and backlash to more open reproductive rights
contributed to a spike in teen pregnancies
in the late 80s, another push for abstinence
surfaced in the 1990s, especially on network TV. In 7th Heaven, the
Camdens' daughter Mary is mistaken as pregnant
after a clerical error at the doctor confuses her test
results with her mom’s "Mary's...Mary's pregnant." Panicked, the Camden parents
mourn their daughter’s bright future. "The life she had
just 5 minutes ago... It’s over." In Beverly Hills 90210,
Brenda gets a pregnancy scare that makes her agonize over
her decision to have sex. "I love Dylan and I thought
I knew what I was doing. But I’m beginning
to get the feeling that it wasn’t worth it." This whole plot actually
came about because of a backlash to the perception that 90210
glamorized sexually active teens. While Brenda’s first sexual
experience with Dylan was portrayed as a positive,
consensual experience based on trust-- "Bren, you don’t
have to do that." "What will the maid think?" “They will think that
two people had a very, very good time here tonight." parents complained it
would encourage their daughters to have sex, and thus
the show responded by punishing Brenda’s decision to
(at least briefly) drive home an abstinence message. "Everybody talks about sex
like it’s no big deal. And it is a big deal." In one of few depictions
centering a woman of color grappling with
teenage pregnancy, 1992’s Just Another
Girl on the I.R.T., Chantel has big plans
for her life. "After graduation, I’m going
straight to college, then med school.
I got it all planned out.” After these plans are derailed
by an unplanned pregnancy, she has to attend
a community college and admit that she doesn’t
have time for much outside of caring for her kid. "But I really don't have
no time to be hanging out. F[BLEEP], I mean,
I've just been too busy." To a large extent, almost
all of these stories reinforced demographer
Arthur Campbell’s words from 1968: "The girl who has an
illegitimate child at the age of 16 suddenly
has 90 percent of her life’s script written for her..." "Her life choices are few,
and most of them are bad." "I don't wanna get
stuck with this baby. I wanna do things,
I wanna have a nice life, I don't wanna be ending up...
I don't wanna end up like my parents!" The early 2000s saw a redefinition
of the teen mom trope -- one who’s less ashamed, arguably
trendy, and even heroic. 2000’s show Gilmore Girls
centered on former teen mom Lorelai Gilmore and her
refreshingly close relationship with her now-teen daughter. "She filled our house with love
and fun and books and music. As she guided me through these
incredible eighteen years, I don't know if
she ever realized that the person I most
wanted to be was her.” Lorelai demonstrated that a woman
could have and keep a baby as a teenager and go on
to live a happy, successful, and independent life. "I worked my way up.
I run the place now. I built a life on my own
with no help from anyone." Instead of being forever
stunted and traumatized by her teen pregnancy,
Lorelai is a joyful, fun person who’s
continuing to grow and mature even well
into adulthood. "I’m a grown woman." "Says the woman with a
Hello Kitty waffle iron." She was also a revolutionary
in that she rejected all of the early teen mom's
three options-- early marriage,
adoption, or abortion --and actively chose
to be a single mom. Meanwhile, 2001’s Reba
broke the cliché that the teen mom’s parents
always freak out on her. The titular character
instills confidence in her newly-pregnant teen daughter,
assuring her she can control her own narrative. "I should be practicing
the new kickline routine for tonight’s halftime show,
not getting married and having a baby." "Just because things are
different don’t mean they have to be bad." 2004’s dark comedy Saved!
uses dark humor and irony to poke fun at the historically
preachy, moralized approach that long judged the teen mom.
The only reason pregnant teen Mary had sex in the first place
is because of her vision of Jesus Christ himself
telling her to “help” her gay boyfriend. “Dean needs you now.
You must do all you can to help him.” The movie subverts the
stigma of the trope, as Mary’s crush (who’s not
the father of the baby) still asks her to prom, "It really doesn’t
matter to me." while the actual father
of her baby is thrilled to learn the news. "You’re pregnant? That’s so awesome." A similar tonal shift
can be felt in 2007’s Juno, which addresses what
was a previously grim subject matter with levity. "At school everyone's
just grabbing my belly all the time. It's crazy.
Yeah, I’m a legend. They call me the
cautionary whale." Although the choices facing Juno
are still difficult and complex, the movie’s irreverent
comedy and nonchalance "That little pink
plus sign is so unholy." illustrated evolving
cultural attitudes about teen sex and women’s rights
to define their own lives. "Are you going to go
to Havenbrook? Or Women Now? Hey, do you want me
to call for you? Cause I called for
Becky last year." Juno’s parents (while
shocked at first) support their daughter, who herself
is pretty blasé about the news. "I’m gonna give it
up for adoption. And I already found
the perfect couple. They’re gonna pay for
the medical expenses and everything. And, and,
in 30-odd weeks then we can pretend that this
never happened." At the end of those
"30-odd weeks," Juno can move on
from giving up her baby for adoption,
without serious turmoil or tragedy, and proceed
with her life pretty much as she’d planned to before. 2009’s 17 Again centers on
the dad in a teen pregnancy who later in life
gets the chance to become a teen again
and revisit his choices. "This is my chance
to have my life over, but to do it right." It ends with the moral that --
far from messing up his life --starting a family with his
pregnant teen girlfriend first was the best decision he ever made. "You're the best decision
I ever made, I just forgot." By 2013, the sitcom Mom,
portraying three generations of teen moms, deals with
dark issues like struggles with addiction, but --
far from those days when it was a grim cautionary tale --
the story is told through jokes and a laugh track. "Never have I ever faked a
toothache just to get nitrous." [Laughing, all taking a drink] So from the 2000s on,
although pregnancy made life more challenging
for a young woman, it didn’t have to outright
define or derail her. She could have an unplanned
pregnancy and still have options and a future—- no matter
what decision she made. "As long as you’re sure
of your decision, then." "I’ll be okay." Kicking off in 2009,
16 & Pregnant and Teen Mom started a boom in
teen mom reality shows that continues to this day. Viewers started witnessing
real-life humans facing these, albeit curated,
real-life decisions. "It was difficult.
It was difficult trying to navigate adult
decisions so young."]
More recently, Kylie Jenner
garnered much attention not only for getting pregnant
at 19 in 2017 (she was 20 when she gave birth to
Stormi in 2018), but also for voicing her desires
even before that to become a mom at a young age. In her words: "’It's genuinely
what I wanted... to be a young mom.’" Critics have worried
that putting real-life teen moms in the spotlight
might even cause baby fever, or young women making
poorly thought-out choices out of celebrity envy. Even Teen Mom 2 star Kailyn Lowry
criticized Kylie for potentially giving young girls who
don’t have her funds the wrong impression of what
young motherhood is like. "When you’re that young,
and you have that much money, and you’re able to have
a nanny or have a lot of help, that shows that it’s
kind of glamorous to have a kid so young.” This isn’t the first time
this argument has been raised. In 2007, Jamie Lynn Spears
shared her news at age 16, and was also criticized for
glamorizing teen pregnancy. "18 girls at one high school
did become pregnant in the same year.
Some thought pop culture was to blame...
Jamie Lynn Spears and Bristol Palin
were in the news." In reality, though,
her trajectory followed the older narrative
for this trope: she was shamed for her choice,
and her budding career was effectively stopped
in its tracks. "My family was here with me,
but we got a lot of agents and managers, they're
on the phone saying, 'Damnit, she's in trouble.
What are we gonna do?'" Worries that now Kylie
or the ongoing Teen Mom show are encouraging more teen moms
ultimately just repackage that same old “moral panic”
of the 20th century -- the idea that teens can’t
see stories about a young woman having sex or making
a particular choice without rushing to thoughtlessly
copy characters or celebrities. According to Melissa Kearney
of the Brookings Institution, a spotlight on the teen mom
can have quite the opposite effect. "In the places where more
young adults were watching MTV, we see significantly larger
declines in teen childbearing." and “16 and Pregnant”
has in fact been credited with contributing to a
decline in teen pregnancy. "We attribute 5.7% reduction
in teen childbearing to the introduction
of 16 and Pregnant in June 2009." Teen mom reality shows
allow viewers to vicariously experience and visualize
the reality of becoming a mother -- which is no joke. Of course, there’s an important way
that Kylie Jenner’s pregnancy is very different
to the vast majority of real teen mom experiences. "At just 21, Jenner
is worth $1 billion."
"Nice families don’t have
pregnant 15 year olds." For a long time, teen pregnancy
and motherhood were viewed as common among lower classes
and families of color, but seen as an anomaly and
embarrassment among middle- and high-class white families. 20th century movies
about teen pregnancy signaled how these
“nice kids” were getting hit with a stigmatized,
low-class affliction through the term “trouble”
in their slogans or promotional campaigns. "These are not juvenile
delinquents. They’re nice kids. Nice kids in trouble.” As the trope shifted in
pop culture from the 2000s on, so, too, did the general public’s
idea on what kinds of people dealt with teen pregnancy. "I had the perfect
Christian boyfriend and I was about to be a senior
at a really good Christian school." Characters within these stories
reflected that the teen mom stigma was still very much alive
in many people’s minds "Just because she’s
pregnant at 17 doesn’t mean we can’t give
our little girl a nice, tasteful wedding.” “Do you hear yourself?
I can’t believe you want to celebrate this embarrassment.” “Oh please, you were 16.
What were we supposed to do? Throw you a party?
We were disappointed.” Thus these young mom-protagonists
were depicted as strong and admirable
for going against the norm. "I could like, have this baby,
and, and give it to someone that, like, totally needs it." Yet it was only a white girl
from a middle- or upper-class family
who got the chance to be viewed as this
kind of rebel hero; anything "radical" about
these movies largely failed to expand the conversation
across race and class lines.
In 2009’s Precious,
one of the rare teen mom narratives that
centers around a woman of color, the teen mom is a tragic
victim, made into a mother by incestuous abuse. "Talk to me about the little
you do know about your father." "He give me this baby,
and my one before." The fantasies she uses
to escape sometimes involve imagining herself
as a white girl, envisioning how much simpler
and happier her life would be if that were her reality. The 2015 film Unexpected
juxtaposes a white female teacher and a black female student’s
racial and socioeconomic differences while they face
unexpected pregnancies together. "You’ve gotten everything
you’ve ever wanted in life. My whole life is disappointment." While the white female’s
“tragic” issues are mostly psychological and individualistic, "I don’t want my whole identity
to be someone’s mom." the black female’s issues
are concretely life altering. "How am I going
to go to school,
and work, and take
care of my baby?" Recent stories about the teen mom
have become less focused on her individual choices
and more about using her to reflect and critique
a society that fails her. In 2017’s The Florida Project,
poor young mom Halley, who seems to have given
birth as a teen, may still be immature and unready
for the responsibilities of motherhood in some ways,
but she loves and enjoys bonding with her daughter;
yet her situation is impossible because she lacks money
or any kind of social support. "You’re literally asking me
to help you take away my f[BLEEP]ing kid?” "This is what’s best right now."
[Overlapping] "Halley, calm down." "Calm down? Calm down?!" In the 2020 movie
Never Rarely Sometimes Always, teen Autumn experiences
the extreme lengths a woman may have to go to
in order to obtain an abortion, even if it’s technically legal. "Women from rural areas are
forced to travel to urban areas when they are in dire need
of reproductive care." The implicit takeaway
is that many women in her situation won’t really
be able to make a choice, and that young women are
in essence being forced into teen motherhood. In Shameless, 15 year-old
Debbie Gallagher actively tries to get pregnant.
Despite her family’s poverty and the shock of parenthood,
she manages to scrape by and adores her daughter,
so it’s not a tragic tale "Tryna set a good example
for Franny. When life gets tough, you smack a smile on your face
and face the day!" But we can see how
growing up poor with unreliable parents
has shaped her expectations for her future, and teen
pregnancy is also shown to be a relatively
common part of life in Debbie’s community. "Can your night nurse
watch my Kwandi, too?" "Sure, no problem.
It's only $20 an hour." "Twenty bucks?!" "Premium infant care
doesn't come cheap, ladies." More broadly, the Teen Mom
can be seen as a stand-in for viewers facing any
big decision or crossroads. "I’m pregnant." "What should we do?" We can relate to teen pregnancy
as a metaphor for the worry that the future might turn out
not at all like we expected, or that big responsibility
is coming sooner than we’d like. But if she can survive
the most unexpected, life-altering challenge,
then we can find our way, too. "I'm scared." "Good, because nothing
is as frightening or as wonderful
as becoming a mother." This is The Take. On your favorite movies,
shows, and culture. Thank you so much for watching,
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