It’s no wonder why television programs about teenage pregnancy are so popular: the United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the industrialized world, and The Center for Disease control found that one-third of girls get pregnant before they turn twenty.  Despite the success of these new shows, they have recently come under fire for glamorizing teenage pregnancy.

The Secret Life of the American Teenager, 16 and Pregnant, and Teen Mom are examples of current trendy television shows that do not show a realistic view of what it is like to have a child.  

Melissa Reed, the Vice President of Public Policy at Planned Parenthood Health Systems, Inc., said that “teenpregnancy is portrayed in the media as something that is easy and that can be dealt with in an easy fashion, when that’s not the reality.”

Reed is constantly surrounded by the true stories of teenage pregnancy, and the statistics behind these stories are astounding.

 ”About 30% of girls who drop out & don’t get diplomas is because of parenting & pregnancy issues,” Reed said. “Most end up in poverty with the child. The reality is different than what the media makes it out to be.”

The television shows aren’t helping the struggles of teenage mothers. “Those shows don’t show the negative situations that can happen,” says freshman Iryna Feshchak, a Political Science major.  “It makes the whole ‘having a baby’ thing not as difficult as it really is in real life.”

Jennifer McGuire, a freshman in management, said that her sister got married when she turned eighteen, got pregnant in May of last year, and gave birth on her twentieth birthday.

“They live paycheck to paycheck,” Maguire said, “so it’s constantly doing things like trying to baby formula. Sometimes I feel like the people on the television shows are unrealistic—my sister is more realistic because a lot of the girls haven’t grown up yet, and once you have a kid you have to grow fast.”

            The issue of teen pregnancy has become so rampant that some schools are aiding young mothers through high school. Michelle Halpern, a sophomore in social work, has personal experience with these programs.

“At my daughter’s high school in L.A.,” Halpern said, “there was a nursery for the girls who stayed in school. The other girls ‘ooh’and ‘aah’ over the cute little babies.” Halpern said that it is similar to the television shows in that it manifests an unrealistic lifestyle of being a mother.

                  The television programs will not be likely to disappear given their high number of viewers, and later years will tell if the shows’ glamorization of teen pregnancy has an impact on their watchers.