Amber (featured in the first clip) dropped out of high school in the 11th grade when she became pregnant with her daughter Leah. She lives with Leah's father, and is dealing with what seems to be a particularly nasty case of post-partum depression. Now that her daughter is no longer an infant, Amber wants to complete her high school diploma, but learns that her lack of funds, her difficulty with math, and her busy schedule means that she will have to opt for a GED instead. While speaking with her career counselor, Amber realizes that getting a high school education is much more difficult to accomplish after one has dropped out. She breaks down and says that she "screwed up [her] whole life." While the scene is sad, I always wonder about people who talk about how they don't have any money, but have perfectly manicured false nails. Fill-ins and upkeep on that shit is expensive!

In the clip to the left, Maci is still dealing with the same issues with her fiancé she confronted in 16 and Pregnant. Her intended isn't an attentive parent, and he goes out with his friends all night long every night of the week. She stays up waiting for him until dawn—while keeping her baby awake with her. In the end, she writes him a Dear John letter, and moves back in with her parents.


Catelynn and Tyler's story is perhaps the most heartbreaking. They made a completely selfless decision by giving their daughter up for adoption, knowing that another family could provide her with a better life than they could. As part of the agreement, the couple were promised that theirs would be an open adoption, that they'd be able to see their daughter multiple times a year, and that they would be a part of her life. However, the adoptive parents decided to not disclose their last name to the couple, and didn't made good on any of their promises to include Catelynn and Tyler in the baby's life.

The show, which premieres on June 11, looks like a good one, as it appears as though it will approach the topic of teen pregnancy in ways we've never seen before, like kids who think they may as well be parents, because they figure they couldn't do a worse job than their own parents did in raising them.

The series is intended to teach kids a lesson that having a baby is a pain in the ass. But I think that a series showing young women exercising their right to choose as a result of teen pregnancy — and everything surrounding it — would be just as interesting and beneficial. These shows usually feature kids having to deal with babies, but it seems like no one ever talks about the option of termination. I believe that teens shouldn't be having sex unless they can deal with the consequences, whether those be pregnancies or abortions.

The Mirror reports that Alfie is not the father of seven-week-old girl Maisie Roxanne. Chantelle Stedman, the girl's mother, became pregnant at the ridiculously young age of 14. Chantelle has apparently said it was her mother's idea to lie and tell the press (and Alfie) that she was a virgin when she slept with Alfie. Before taking the paternity test, Alfie defended Chantelle, saying: "I don't really care what people say. And I don't like them being bad about Chantelle." So far there is no news on Alfie's reaction to the DNA tests. We can only hope that this news does not stop Maisie from getting the love and care she needs or lead to further slut-shaming of the 15-year-old mother. [Mirror]

Alfie and girlfriend Chantelle Stedman's families have already been paid tens of thousands of dollars to sell their story to the British tabloids. Ten film companies are reportedly bidding to make a movie about them, and one former News of the World editor estimates that the families stand to make hundreds of thousands of dollars in the coming years by selling photos of milestones in Maisie's life, like her first birthday or first day at school. Of course, these offers are dependent on the paternity test, which social services has agreed to pay for, proving that Alfie is the baby's father. For now, all the media attention has caused Alfie's school to report that he is often truant. His mother Nicola Patten will appear in court next week to explain why Alfie didn't attend school regularly during a five-month period last year. [The Washington Post, The Telegraph, The Daily Mail]

"Other stupid boys are lying, saying bad things, like they have slept with Chantelle too," Patten says, "But I am the only boyfriend she has had and we've been together for two years, so I must be the dad. When she found out she was having a baby, I asked her 'Am I the dad?' and she went 'Yeah' so I believe her. I didn't know about DNA tests before, but Mum explained it's when they do a swab in your mouth and it tells you if you're the dad. So, if I have that, they can all shut up. But I don't really care what people say. And I don't like them being bad about Chantelle." One hopes that whatever the results of the tests, Alfie, Chantelle, and Maisie will get the love and support they need. [Telegraph]

Patten, who evidently didn't "didn't know what he was doing and of the complications that could come," according to his father, Dennis, apparently didn't get the education he needed, which is even more infuriating when you consider that his sister also had a child at 13. "I will talk to him again and it will be the birds and the bees talk. Some may say it's too late but he needs to understand so there is not another baby," Dennis insists, but perhaps someone needs to talk to Dennis about the birds and the bees and needing to understand so there's not another baby, no?

Alfie's half-sister, Nicole, blames their father, who left the family two years ago for a 19-year-old girl, for Alfie's behavior: "I blame my dad for Alfie getting Chantelle pregnant. If it wasn't for him, Alfie wouldn't be in this situation. When dad left it tore the family to pieces. Alfie's mum took her eyes off the ball - And Alfie looked for comfort somewhere else to take his mind off things."

But perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this story is the immediate blame placed on now 15-year-old Chantelle Steadman, whose reputation as a slut and a member of a family who collects state benefits is being splattered all over the papers as a defense of young Alfie Patten: "'She's been with quite a few lads. They are allowed to sleep over at her house, her parents don't mind. She is treated like an adult and can do what she wants," says one neighbor. "She knows lots of boys and never has the same boyfriend for long. Alfie lives with her and seems to think he's the dad but we all think he should have a DNA test," says another.

The pictures of Alfie and Chantelle are shocking and quite sad; yet what is lost amongst the uproar regarding Alfie's prepubescent appearance is the fact that Chantelle is a child too: she was 14 when she became pregnant, and perhaps instead of pointing fingers at Chantelle, calling her a slut, and questioning her attraction to a boy two years her junior, we should be questioning the environment that brought these children together and produced a child in the first place.

"I know I'm young, but I plan to be a good dad," Alfie Patten says, "I think we'll be good parents. I'll have to work extra hard at school."

"When I was pregnant the police and social workers came to interview us and they decided that we would make good parents to Maisie," Steadman agrees, "We will prove to everyone that we can be, and give her a great future."

Whether Steadman and Patten will be able to provide a great future for Maisie is yet to be seen, but one can't help but feel that society, as a whole, has already failed them as children. Let's hope that instead of turning their lives into a tabloid freakshow, we can somehow give them the education, support, and opportunities they missed out on as children to provide them, and their daughter, with a much brighter future.

Teenage Sister Of Boy Who Became A Father At 13 Had A Baby When She Was Same Age [DailyMail]

Baker's story focuses on two teens, new mom Alivia, 17, and her non-pregnant friend Kaila, also 17. Alivia has never met her father. Her mother floats in and out of her life. She moved in with an aunt for a while, and that aunt abruptly died from a heroin overdose. Alivia subsequently moved in with another aunt, but when she became pregnant by a Brazilian fisherman, she was happy. "It was the chance to have a family of her own, which is something she always wanted," Baker writes.

Alivia's motivations further bolster the theory I wrote about yesterday, the new "Middle Class Morality," described by the New Yorker's Margaret Talbot. The theory is that many middle class Americans put off sex, not because they think it is morally wrong, but because they have too much to lose to make themselves vulnerable to pregnancy and STDs. The girls in Baker's story don't have anything to lose at all: they're not much into school, and it's difficult for them to see outside the confines of their hometown.

The inclusion of non-pregnant Kaila in Baker's story is an interesting one. Kaila is the outspoken advocate of Alivia and a few other pregnant friends, who told reporters first spilling into Gloucester that teens are getting pregnant because the parents are absent. "Half the parents around here have no clue what's going on with their kids," Kaila said, and she was one of the few interviewees who had anything close to a stable family life. Kaila's mom, Sally, not only is very involved with her daughter's life, but also opens up her house to many of Kaila's pregnant friends. Kaila says that her mom is "obviously doing something right, I'm 17. And no babies!" It might seem to some like a low bar, but studies show that delaying pregnancy even a few years, to age 20, is statistically much better for both mother and child.

Though Kaila seems to have her head on straight, there's one area where she needs a good talking to: she is obsessed with Tyra Banks. Kaila promised her exclusive story to the Tyra show, because she "feels a bond with the diva supermodel host. She knows they can both be goofy and tough and sexy and real." Oh honey, noooooo!!

Growing Up Gloucester [Boston Magazine]

Earlier: Pregnancy Pacts Better Than Suicide Ones, Still Not That Good
Gloucester Teens Deny Existence Of Pregnancy Pact
As Abstinence Pledges Falter, A New Middle-Class Morality Emerges
Teen Moms Displeased At Double Standard Glorifying Bristol Palin, Jamie Lynn Spears

FDLS brass of course, deny that any sexual abuse has occurred. Church spokesman Rod Parker thinks that the Texas Child Protective Services is underestimating the ages of the pregnant girls. Parker told the AP, "I do have serious questions about how they are determining age in there."

Each of the 463 minors taken from the YFZ ranch by the state of Texas is supposed to have an individual hearing by June 5 in order to determine if they should be put into foster care. Civil Liberties groups are arguing alongside that FDLS that the initial accusations of abuse only focused on teen girls, yet the state of Texas took every child, no matter age or gender. But couldn't it be argued that a culture that condones — however tacitly — the abuse of teenage girls is no culture for any child to be raised in?

Most Teen Girls From Ranch Have Been Pregnant [AP via MSNBC]
CPS: Half of Sect's Teen Girls Have Been Pregnant [AP via CNN]

Earlier: Authorities Take 400 More Kids From Polygamist Sect In Texas
Texas Officials Keep Teen Moms From Polygamist Sect In State Custody

A spokesman for Child Protective Services tells Reuters that separating mothers and children is "difficult thing.... But these children must be protected." Over one hundred of the FDLS children have already been placed in foster homes, according to the AP, and the rest will be taken to foster homes and group residences in the next few days. The Texas appeals court is still hearing arguments about whether mothers should be allowed to visit their children while abuse allegations are being investigated, and for now, CPS is trying to keep the FDLS children separate from the greater foster care population as the kids have little or no experience with modern society. Another Child Protective Services spokesperson, Shari Pulliam, tells the AP, "We recognize it's critical that these children not be exposed to mainstream culture too quickly or other things that would hinder their success. We just want to protect them from abuse and neglect. We're not trying to change them."

The extent of the abuse may become more clear once DNA tests of the children and mothers are completed. Scientists believe they will be able to confirm or deny accusations of incest and statutory rape that have been leveled at the sect.

More Teenage Mothers Emerge In Texas Polygamy Probe [Reuters]
Texas Officials Believe 25 Sect Moms Under 18 [AP via MSNBC]
How DNA Tests Reveal Polygamist Sex Practices [MSNBC]

Earlier: Polygamists Avoid Giving Answers On Today
Despite Doubters, Texas Will Keep Polygamist Children In State Custody
Authorities Take 400 More Kids From Polygamist Sect In Texas