This January, MTV launched Teen Mom 2, featuring the lives of four teenagers entering motherhood. Many people are pondering whether a second season of Teen Mom influences teenagers to abstain from sex or simply glamorizes the idea of getting “knocked up” in hopes of getting a TV show.
MTV’s reality based television series, 16 and Pregnant, produced in June 2009 by Morgan J. Freeman documents the lives of teenagers during their pregnancy. The success and popularity of the show led to a follow up series, known as Teen Mom, which chronicles the lives of four teens as they venture into the challenging realm of motherhood. The big debate over the series is whether it sets a good or bad example for teenagers. The show takes an intimate look into the struggles and hardships of teen pregnancy, however; accumulating fame and wealth by getting pregnant is not an accurate depiction of becoming a teen mom.
The only way to prevent teen pregnancy 100 percent of the time is to abstain from sexual activity completely. However, if you are having sex, it is extremely vital take precaution and use contraception which helps prevent pregnancy as well as STD’s. Most teens use condoms and birth control, but if you catch one episode of teen mom disasters, Amber Portwood or Jenelle Evans, you might be a little hesitant the next time you engage in unprotected sex. That being said, Teen Mom 2 explores the lives of Jenelle Evans, Chelsea Houska, Kailyn Lowry and Leah Messer to show the difficulties and responsibilities of motherhood in hopes to lower the statistics of teenage pregnancy. Stephanie Ventura, the co-author on the study on teen birth rates believes that the Teen Mom series has some influence in the decline of teenage pregnancies. “They are a strong public relations message about teen pregnancy prevention being really important,” stated Ventura.
Although the Teen Mom series depicts the hardships teen moms can endure, the debate over this television series is based primarily around the fame and wealth these teens have established from the show. According to some reports, these “stars” are bringing in at least $60,000-65,000 per season. Parents, critics, and even celebrities such as Kim Kardashian have stirred up controversy, and believe this new trend of glorifying teen pregnancy is exactly the opposite of birth control. Kardashian recently posted in her blog,
It seems that shows like Teen Mom are all of a sudden making teen pregnancy seem cool in the eyes of young girls. The kids from these shows are all over the news, even on the covers of magazines, and have been become almost like celebrities, but girls, these are not people you should idolize!
Evidently, Teen Mom 2 chronicles the challenging lifestyle of becoming a teen mother, but it also gives viewers the wild idea of becoming celebrities just because they’ve been impregnated by their often dead-beat boyfriend. So, the question is left unresolved; Teen Mom 2: Birth Control or Bad Example?
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