Sixteen and famous?
By Claire Cudahy
The tabloid magazines lining the racks as I wait in line at Safeway reflect our nation's growing obsession with reality TV; the Kardashian sisters, the newest couple from "the Bachelor" and the cast of "Jersey Shore" have become frequent faces on the covers of US Weekly, People Magazine and OK!
The youngest members to join this growing group of reality stars (the Gosselin kids of "Jon & Kate Plus 8" excluded) are the girls of MTV's "16 and Pregnant" and its counterpart "Teen Mom." Just as Snooki gained fame for her gift of drunken belligerence, so too have these young girls achieved stardom from their teenage pregnancies and subsequent struggles.
"16 and Pregnant" kicked off its third season this year, with the franchise of teen moms bringing in some serious ratings for MTV. (The finale of "Teen Mom 2" engrossed 4.7 million viewers).
With the budding popularity of the shows and the incessant curiosity of its viewers, the young mothers' struggle to balance school, the baby and a social life — usually with the baby's father absent — is no longer enough for viewers. They wanted to know more and the tabloids are more than happy to comply.
A recent headline of In Touch Weekly, "Teen Moms Addicted to Surgery," alleged that three of the girls are considering breast implants, nose jobs and liposuction.
This season's rebel teen mom, Jenelle, has become widely searched and talked about in the blogosphere for her party-girl antics, frequent fights with her mother and her battle to maintain custody of her son, Jace.
Maci, who starred in both shows and is rumored in In Touch to be getting breast implants, says she has had to limit her fan communication to those in her own city because of the large amount of outreach.
When "16 and Pregnant" first aired in 2009, the show had a clear message: teen pregnancy is no walk in the park. The show served as a cautionary tale for young girls, showing the demands of motherhood, financially supporting a child and managing school.
This October, the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy published the results of a survey in which 93 percent of youth questioned at different Boys and Girls Clubs of America said after watching an episode of "16 and Pregnant" that teenage parenthood was "harder than [they] imagined."
While the show still partially retains this message, in light of the teen moms' recent tabloid popularity, MTV is faced with the task of keeping the show real, yet avoiding the glamorization of teen pregnancy.
With books in the works for two of the teen moms, some with agents and others posing provocatively for modeling, the message that teen pregnancy should be avoided has become muddled and the source of this confusion lies in the newfound celebrity of these young girls.
An alternative message has emerged: get pregnant at 16 and you can be on TV, magazine covers and use this celebrity status to make money. Though this may seem like an unrealistic connection to make, when it comes to the impulsive and sometimes irrational decision making of pre-teens and teens, it is not so farfetched.
"I don't fault these girls for wanting to be on TV," said Amy Kramer, director of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, to the LA Times. "I think what they have done by taking part in this show is extraordinarily generous because they are allowing other people to look at them at their most vulnerable and emotional moments."
Be that as it may, the fact still remains that teen moms have become paparazzi-followed celebrities. I would argue that this is not the fault of the shows themselves for presenting a skewed message, but of the media who propels and exploits the popularity of these young teen moms. Outside of the show, these girls have become more than warning examples of teen pregnancy; they have become public personalities paving a dangerous path from teen mom to stardom.
Claire Cudahy is a junior English major.