Teen Pregnancy Shows, What effect they have on you. | Teen Ink

Teen Pregnancy Shows, What effect they have on you.

November 4, 2009
By Laura123 BRONZE, Somerville, Massachusetts
Laura123 BRONZE, Somerville, Massachusetts
1 article 0 photos 3 comments

Favorite Quote:
Champions keep playing until they get it right. <br /> Billie Jean King


The number of teens in America that got pregnant in 2000 was over 820,000, which Is over eighty pregnancies per one thousand people. This is way too many teenage pregnancies.

The Secret Life of the American Teenager and 16 and Pregnant are two shows about pregnancies. In The Secret Life of the American Teenager, Amy is a sixteen year-old girl who gets pregnant. She keeps her baby and her parents support her through the whole pregnancy. After she has the baby they help her take care of it while she is at school. In 16 and Pregnant girls are in families that don’t raise their children well or sometimes don’t even care. Also in 16 and Pregnant the girls have to make many tough decisions: they either choose to have an abortion, choose to keep the baby, or choose to give it up for adoption. Many of the teens keep the baby, but either dropout of high school and find a part time job or just dropout and stay home with the baby. Many people dislike the shows, but I think they help teens understand the realities.

These shows show what it’s like to be a pregnant teen and they bring up a lot of questions. Am I going to lose my reputation? Am I going to drop out of school if I get pregnant? How am I going to take care of this child? What’s going to happen to me? These are all questions you are going to have to think about when you are pregnant or even before you get pregnant. These shows help you think of answers to all of these questions because they explain what it is like to be a pregnant teen.

For example, a girl never knows what her boyfriend is going to do. In The Secret Life of the American Teenager, the boyfriend breaks up with Amy and starts going out with her best friend. He does help out with the baby, but you don’t know if that will always happen. In 16 and Pregnant the boyfriends usually stick around, but every once in a while they will leave their girlfriend because they think its just too hard to take care of the baby. They either give the baby up for adoption or have a very hard time taking care of it.

In my own case, my birth mother had me when she was seventeen. At the time, she was married to my birth father who was nineteen and they had a one year old. Seven days after I was born I was given up for adoption. Within a year they broke up, and from then on my birth mother had to raise my birth brother on her own.

In The Secret Life of the American Teenager, they have breaks where they talk about how to prevent teen pregnancy. For example, they say you can have a talk about sex with your parents. They talk about using condoms and using birth control. They talk about abstinence, which is when you don’t have sex until you get married.

I think these shows about teen pregnancy are a good idea because they teach kids either how to deal with teen pregnancy or how to keep from getting pregnant. Most teenagers were just recently kids themselves and are not mature enough to raise a kid. Most teens don’t really know the consequences of their actors, but these shows bring those consequences right into their livi


The author's comments:
This Piece is about what I feel is a BIG deal in the world.

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This article has 16 comments.


on Feb. 9 2012 at 4:53 pm
Ilove this ARTICLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

on Feb. 8 2012 at 11:10 am
i believe that those shows are always a good way to show teens my age (17) older and younger the bad sides of being pregnant but i mean personally i believe these kinds of shows are what is causing more pregnancys if you really thing about it i am a senior in highschool and i kno 8 freshman pregnant, 2 sophmores 10 juniors and 5 seniors. and the sad things is it all started by watching these shows they thought well yeah they show bad but theres definatly some good to it. you have to look at it in both ways if you ask me. yes it may be hard but theres nothing you can do . people are more influenced to be pregnant cause of these shows then not.

on Nov. 16 2011 at 8:18 pm
kaylarocks SILVER, AURORA, Colorado
9 articles 0 photos 33 comments

Favorite Quote:
&quot;The more you take responsibility for your past and present, the more you are able to create the future you seek.&quot; - Author Unknown

I totally agree with kinziep. Without watching these teen pregnacy shows there is a possible chance that our teen pregnacy rates could go up. One purpose of these shows is to prevent adoselents and teens from making the same mistake.

kupkake said...
on May. 18 2011 at 10:15 am
omg i love the show 16 amd pregenent and i love the show teen mom...i love this story...

LLPK said...
on Oct. 15 2010 at 1:07 pm
The author writes, "Many people dislike the shows, but I think they help teens understand the realities."  At first, I too disliked the show "16 and Pregnant" because I thought it might entice girls to try to get pregnant so that they could be cast on the show.  However, after viewing an entire season and witnessing the daily struggles of  teen parents, it became very clear that most females would never intentionally want to be in this position.  As a teen, you want to have freedom and a carelessness that you can't necessarily have as an adult.  For the sake of their children, I only hope that the teens featured on this show have successful and happy lives after the cameras are shut off.

LLPK said...
on Oct. 15 2010 at 12:57 pm
The author of this article writes, "Many people dislike the shows, but I think they help teens understand the realities."  At first, I did not like these shows because I feared that some girls would want to get pregnant and try to get on "16 and Pregnant" themselves.  But after viewing a season, the struggles of teen motherhood resonated from the screen, and it was clear to me that no one would choose to be in this situation if she could help it.  I think it is a powerful contrast to many teen's concepts of the "glamour" of parenthood.  I only hope that the females featured on the shows have successful, happy lives after the cameras are turned off.

laura123 said...
on Jun. 8 2010 at 5:17 pm
its ok i did to at first

on Jun. 8 2010 at 9:17 am
krazykathleen BRONZE, Edwardsville, Illinois
1 article 0 photos 99 comments

Favorite Quote:
&quot;7/5 of all people do not understand fractions.&quot; -Unknown

Oh, okay. Sorry I misread that.

laura123 said...
on Jun. 7 2010 at 5:08 pm
she meant got pregnant at my school

on Jun. 5 2010 at 6:13 pm
krazykathleen BRONZE, Edwardsville, Illinois
1 article 0 photos 99 comments

Favorite Quote:
&quot;7/5 of all people do not understand fractions.&quot; -Unknown

Um PurpleMidnight, how did a girl get you pregnant? You can't be pregnant if you're a guy, and one girl can't get another girl pregnant so I was just wondering.

laura123 said...
on Mar. 5 2010 at 7:17 pm
WHAT?!?!?!?!

on Mar. 5 2010 at 5:29 pm
amazingkp. BRONZE, Lemars, Iowa
4 articles 0 photos 59 comments
I watch Secret life of an American Teenager. And i think it is a good idea to watch and learn from their mistakes so maybe you don't make the same mistakes like they did. Like um...not having a baby as a teenager!!!! (sorry)

laura123 said...
on Dec. 31 2009 at 12:15 pm
yea i no some people that have had relatives or friends that have got pregnant at a young age and it was really tough for them and they didn't get as much help as they needed.

on Dec. 11 2009 at 5:44 pm
FlyleafFreak DIAMOND, Loveland, Colorado
51 articles 0 photos 203 comments

Favorite Quote:
&quot;I have faith in fools;self confidence my friends call it&quot;~Edger Allan Poe<br /> &quot;In this world of infinite insanity, your friends are the best psychiatrists you will ever have.&quot;~Me

Great point1 I experienced this first hand because me and my friends would talk about being pregnant not being that bad, but then a girl in 7TH GRADE got pregnant at me school.

laura123 said...
on Dec. 2 2009 at 7:59 pm
Thank you very much.

on Nov. 22 2009 at 5:25 pm
FeedTheBirds SILVER, San Diego, California
6 articles 0 photos 82 comments
Nice article. I think one problem people have with the shows is that they still seem to glorify teen pregnancy . Especially in Secret Life, Amy was rarely seen with the side affects of pregnancy (morning sickness, etc). It also seems that these shows are more exploiting teen pregnancy as plot device rather than really taking the issue head on.
I did however enjoy the reality tv show a few years ago where they gave a bunch of teens kids from newborns to teenagers to take care of for a week. It really emphasized the drawbacks of having children while you are still kids yourselves.