Hollywood Tricks Teen Girls Into Pregnancies

April 19, 2010  
Filed under Uncategorized

With shows like 90210, 16 and Pregnant, Gossip Girl, The Secret Life of the American Teenager and Teen Mom as well as movies like Juno and The Pregnancy Pact it comes as no surprise that 31 percent of teen girls want to have a baby.

All of those shows and movies have one thing in common—a lot of sex, which for the most part is pretty unrealistic. On Gossip Girl, everyone has sex and steamy hookups without protection, but they fail to include the consequences such as STDs and pregnancy.

Not to mention, On The Secret Life of the American Teenage, the main character, Amy, got pregnant and had a baby the year before, and is already back in school and looking amazing—while easily balancing school, a social life and motherhood. That is ridiculous and I honestly doubt that life is really like that once you have had a kid.

I am not for abortion by any means, but when the idea of having an abortion was quickly dismissed on 90210 as if it was not a real choice for teen girls, I could not help but think REALLY?!?! And then, there are the movies like Juno where it is seems so easy and in some ways kind of noble to be pregnant in high school. Giving your child up for adoption has always been an option for teen moms, but with movies like Juno, they give the impression that it is so easy, and not that I would personally know, but how could it be easy to give your own flesh and blood to a stranger? There is no way it could be.

Of course, shows like Teen Mom and 16 and Pregnant are not completely unrealistic, they do a pretty accurate job at showing the gritty, real struggle of unplanned teen pregnancies. But still, the glamour is still there with having an entire nation think that your life is compelling enough to tune in every week.

I just think that teen girls rely way too much on these shows for information when they are clearly entertainment. They do not show every second of everyday, they only show the drama filled parts that will get more viewers, and they just gloss over the facts. You never hear how the majority of girls who have a baby before the age of 18 do not graduate high school, or how 80 percent of the fathers do not marry the teen mothers and most couples do not even stay together after the baby is born.

Contrary to what you would think because of 90210 and Juno, less than 2 percent of girls even give their child up for adoption in the real world.

Yes, I do watch all of these shows, but the fact still remains that it is TV. TV is not reality, even the show The Real World is not real. With this Hollywood influence it does not surprise me that America has accepted the fact that 750,000 teen girls get pregnant every year. I personally think that getting pregnant will make every possible road ahead more difficult and whether you become a teen mom, put your baby up for adoption or choose abortion, you life will never be the same. I would take from the girls who have learned the truth by living it, not DVR-ing it.

The Facts: (Seventeen Magazine-May Issue)

• 31 percent of teen girls say TV shows and movies make them want to have a baby.
• 55 percent of teen girls say TV shows and movies encourage them to have sex.
• 20 percent of teen girls say TV shows and movies make teen motherhood seem normal.
• 48 percent of teen girls say that they get their information on sex, pregnancy and parenting from TV shows and movies.
• 750,000 teen girls will get pregnant this year, do not be one of them.

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Danon Taylor

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