Teen Pregnancy

Krystale Bradley

It used to be that most girls dream of growing up, marrying the perfect man, having kids and living happily ever after. Unfortunately these dreams don’t always turn into reality. In this decade, it is not unusual for teenage girls to get pregnant before they graduate high school. In an article by Marina Khidekel, she states "750, 00 teen girls a year get pregnant." For some it's just a mistake of not having protection, but for some it was on purpose. What could possibly make a teenage girl want to take on the responsibility of raising a child?

According to Khidekel, “Thirty-one percent of teen girls say TV shows & movies make them want to have a baby." We have all heard of, and probably seen; hit TV shows such as The Secret Life of The American Teenager and Teen Mom. These shows are about teen girls who get pregnant while still in high school and the different situations they face. Girl’s watch these shows and see how easy and glamorous they make being a teen mom appear. Some do show the rough times of being a teen mom but as Khidekel pointed out “in the end these shows are entertainment and it can be easy to gloss over the facts. The teen mom life is not as easy as it seems and most teen girls have to learn this the hard way.”

"Of course, you're the one with the power to make your own choices and you have family and friends and a million other factors influencing your decisions- but when you see so much teen sex and pregnancy everywhere it starts to seem normal" states Khidekel. TV shows and movies aren’t the only thing influencing teen girls, but they do consume a big part in it. It’s not all bad, but a lot of the shows don’t give the accurate and important facts the young teens girls need to know.

Many teen think that they can juggle being a teen mom plus school but they soon find out it’s not that it’s very hard to do without a lot of help. "The majority of girls who have had a baby before the age of 18 don’t graduate high school." (Khidekel) They end up dropping out and working a dead-end job just to try and support their child. Some get lucky and have parents and friends to help them stay in school while working but not everyone is that lucky. "80% of fathers don’t stay with the teen mother of their babies." (Khidekel) So many young girls become teenage single mothers."Teen pregnancy is the major contributor to poverty, single parenthood and limited features fir adolescents and their children, that why it’s so significant to attend to the problem now and not later."

Many people ask themselves why some girls want to get pregnant at such a young age? Well different girls do it for different reasons and to them it makes sense. Some reasons are “The girls want someone to love and love them back; they think it will be "cute", want to grow up faster, don’t have anything constructive to focus on." After they actually have the babies they realize these were senseless reason to want to become a teen mother.

"They're either not educated enough or voluntarily ignoring the fact that birthing and raising a child is not as easy and will not make their lives more fun." Most parents just assume that they have raised that child to make the right choice and just ignore the fact that their kid could be choosing not to. It is the parent’s responsibility to talk to their child about teen sex and the facts about being a teen mother. That way the teen knows the consequences and will make them think twice before doing something they will regret like getting pregnant on purpose. I’m not saying anything bad about teens that have had kids because I’ve had friends become teen mom during high school and they take care of their child, have a job and continue going to school. I’m saying young teens should know and understand the truth about being a teen mom before deciding to do something that can alter their whole life.