Glamorizing Pregnancy

      I was flipping through channels the other day and landed on MTV. I let out a sigh as I saw that the popular show "Teen Mom" was on. A girl, looking to be about 16 years old, was fighting violently with her mother. Five seconds in and I could not watch anymore. Then I thought about why this show was so popular. I've seen it advertised on magazine covers and commercials. WHY?? I decided to clench my teeth and bare it awhile longer.
     "Teen Mom" centers around a few high school girls who mistakenly got pregnant. In most cases (I guess this is season three?) the girls decide to raise the baby while the MTV filming crew follows them around. The show presents the struggles of having a baby at a young age and the responsibilities that come with it. I understand that part. However, these girls are spoiled, materialistic, immature brats that purposely make everything in their lives more dramatic than it needs to be. MTV is smart because, as we all know, drama is like moths to a flame. People loveeee it. According to CNN specialist Melissa Henson, "MTV chooses to focus on the girls' volatile relationships with the babies' fathers or their new body piercings and tattoos. That makes for better TV". 
      Teen Mom has a cult following that has somehow concluded that it is cool to pregnant. Girls that got pregnant by their trashy, irresponsible boyfriends are famous and rich. Maybe getting pregnant could be their chance for fifteen minutes of fame. So, I wondered, has pregnancy in teenage girls increased since the air of the show, Teen Mom? Fox News asked the same question. It turns out a lot of teen pregnancy stories were presented to MTV since the air of the show in 2009 (after the popularity of "16 and Pregnant", another MTV show) "And despite the spike in teen pregnancy storylines, statistics from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention show that while the number of teen pregnancies in the U.S increased from 435,427 in 2006 to 445,045 in 2007 – they decreased by 2 percent in 2008". Rates now are the lowest they've ever been. 
      Teen Mom is glamorizing pregnancy, but with proof that teenage pregnancy rates are not increasing, maybe the show should stand for what it is-crap television. Hopefully young girls will realize that it is not cool to raise a child when you still are a child.



---Liz P