Meet Whitney and Owen. Whitney is one of the subjects of "16 and Pregnant" on MTV. Photo by MTV.com
For the past five weeks, I've had a date with MTV. I haven't watched MTV in a long time (you know, back when they actually played VIDEOS) but I digress. Then I stumbled on this show "16 and pregnant" and I haven't been able to turn away since!
I feel guilty because this are real life situation, but it's like crack. I can't take just one hit. Over the past few weeks we've watched the destruction of Maci and Ryan's relationship. We've watched Farrah duke it out with her mom. We've watched Amber and her older boyfriend Gary mature into loving parents. We watched Ebony's dreams about joining the Air Force come crashing down, only to watch her boyfriend (now husband) get to live his dream of entering the Air Force while she has to stay home with the baby.
And last week, we met Whitney, who is 16 but seemed like 12. I think her episode was the most tragic of all with her, her boyfriend Weston, her mom (who was pregnant too) and her mom's boyfriend all living in her Grandma's (affectionally called Meemaw) all living into a double wide. (cue music from "Deliverance" now).
While clearly MTV ripped of "Juno" I think they ARE doing a service to their audience. Pregnancy isn't cute. It isn't Hollywood and babies aren't magically quiet all the time. They need care. They need love. They need ADULTS to take care of them.
Tonight's episode had Catelynn and Tyler trying to do the adult thing by giving the baby up for adoption. However, their parents want the teens to KEEP the baby. C and T's situation is more complex because both of their parents have had hard times. Tyler's dad has been in jail and Catelynn's mom flakes (I'm betting it's meth) and so they are grappling with what to do. That being said, catch this on the reruns because it's worth it.
I'm hoping that some teens will think twice before having unsafe sex.
