Photo: (MTV)
Take their word for it: Teen motherhood is far from glamorous. As young mama Jenelle puts it, "No matter how famous, or how much money you have, or how much you're on TV, having a child is going to be hard." The cast of Teen Mom 2 has weathered tabloid drama, boyfriend drama, legal drama and TV-ready real life drama, but from the sounds of it, all of that is way diff to the challenges of parenting, cameras or not. It's no easy task — and if the new stats on teen pregnancy rates are any indication, young people are getting the message loud and clear.
As USA Today reports, teen birth rates fell for the third year in a row in 2010. In fact, the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy points out new stats from the CDC confirming that teen births are at the lowest rate ever reported. Could pop culture share credit with advocacy and education orgs? After all, no pamphlet can bring the real picture to life the way the Teen Mom episodes can, right?
National Campaign CEO Sarah Brown says, "The magic formula of less sex and more contraception is responsible for this great good news. Teens are being more careful for a number of reasons, including the recession, more media attention to this issue — including the '16 and Pregnant/Teen Mom effect' — and more attention to and investment in evidence-based programs. But at the end of the day, the thanks and admiration go to teens themselves."
What magic formula are you using? Check out birth control options courtesy of It's Your Sex Life and postpone the baby drama 'til you're good and ready to bid glamour bye-bye.
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Pregnancy Prevention
Think you know everything about condoms? It's Your Sex Life has lots of good facts and info about latex.
