Babies Having Babies
Posted on February 23, 2009
Filed Under East meets West, Guest Columnist | Leave a Comment
By Susan L. Stackpole
A Never-Imagined Today — ALFIE, CHANTELLE AND MAISIE
Movies and celebrity teens glamorize pregnancy to young teens, allowing them to slip into a fantasy world filled with idealized images of chic, slender moms effortlessly holding their babies amidst a flurry of giddy attention from loved ones. Hidden behind the camera lens is the grand entourage that assists and sometimes substitutes for young celebrities caring for their children. It becomes easy to forget that movies and young celebrity parents fail to convey the harsh reality that becoming a parent changes life forever. Once you go baby, you can never go back. The good news is abortion rates are down; however, teen pregnancy is up. Teens worldwide seem to share the misconception that young pregnancy is cool.
British baby-faced thirteen year old, Alfie, recently fathered a daughter, Maisie, with Chantelle, a fifteen year old teen. The pregnancy reportedly happened when Alfie spent the night at Chantelle’s house. British reports suggest that increases in binge drinking among teens contributes to early teen pregnancies. Sir Bernard Ingham, former press secretary to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, spoke to the Associated Press, stating that Britain’s social breakdown has caused country-wide social despair. Specifically referring to Alfie’s situation, Sir Ingham stated, “It’s an indication that we’ve lost our way, that people don’t know the difference between right and wrong. The plain fact is society can’t proceed on this basis. I think this is an indication of  Broken Britain.” Whew, so much so for an Empire where the Sun never set at a time in history.
Jamie Lynn Spears- Another Pregnant Teen
The glamour and seeming ease of young pregnancy is luring teenage wanna-be mothers into a fantasy world studded with posh baby showers, instant popularity, and lavish attention from family and friends. Britney Spears mothering two children before her twenty-fifth birthday suggested to teens that pregnancy is something fun and to be taken lightly. Intense media attention surrounding Spears’ pregnancy further impressed upon teen fans that pregnancy equals attention. Solange Knowles, pregnant at eighteen, and Jamie Lynn Spears, pregnant at seventeen, furthered the illusion that young pregnancy is something that makes one popular without fully conveying the true impact of the intense responsibility and hard work that is synonymous with parenthood.
Tyra Banks was shocked by the results of an anonymous survey taken on The Tyra Banks Show‘s website, which reflected that one in five girls says, she wants to be a teen mother. Tyra interviewed a seventeen year old girl, mother of a seven year old boy, who deliberately planned to become pregnant on her lunch break. The girl states, “I had calculated that on two days I was most likely to get pregnant.†Tyra spoke to other girls who confirmed that the glamour of Hollywood and young celebrity pregnancies has definitely inspired them to believe that becoming a young parent is something admirable, and they also admitted to perhaps not really being prepared financially or emotionally to parent a child. 
Tyra interviewed eight girls from fourteen to seventeen to discuss the survey findings and share their own experiences. The girls on the show confirmed that along with desiring pregnancy, they have contracted sexually transmitted diseases, used drugs like salvia and ecstasy, and gotten into violent fights. Dr. Elizabeth Schroeder, executive director of Answer, a Rutgers University teen sex education program, confirmed that Tyra’s survey results are consistent with other research on teen sexuality. Schroeder confirms that an adolescent … is supposed to be making poor decisions. They need help… Parents need help talking with their kids about sexuality, and schools need to be talking to kids about sexuality.â€Â
Teens are turning to pregnancy, sex, drugs, and wild behavior as a way to compensate for a lack of self-esteem, failing to realize that truly good parenting originates with a desire to give love and be nurturing rather than to fill a void inside themselves. One wonders what factors are contributing to a generation living so hard and fast in a time when they are given more advantages than any other generation in history. Perhaps it’s time to instill in today’s teens a sense of integrity and responsibility for their actions and inspire them to become the positive role models they are so desperately seeking.
For further information, please watch Matt Lauer’s interview with Tyra Banks
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/27716567#27716567
The following are the results from “The Tyra Banks Show†survey
More than 10,000 teenage girls and young women took part in an anonymous survey over the summer on TyraShow.com, the Web site of “The Tyra Banks Show. Survey questions focused on sexuality, sexually transmitted diseases and teen pregnancy, as well as drinking, drugs and violence among females. Parents, brace yourselves: The survey results are in, and you may not like what they reveal about girls and sex. Here are some findings from the survey:
• On average, girls are losing their virginity at 15 years of age.
• 14 percent of teens who are having sex say they’re doing it at school.
• 52 percent of survey respondents say they do not use protection when having sex.
• One in three says she fears having a sexually transmitted disease.
• 24 percent of teens with STDs say they still have unprotected sex.
• One in five girls says she wants to be a teen mom.
• About 50 percent acknowledge that they’ve hit someone.
• One out of three teens has tried drugs.
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