It seemed to have started with Juno. Then came Jamie Lynn Spears' pregnancy. Recently there were news reports about a possible pregnancy pact between teen girls in Massachusetts. Now there are two new shows on television that seem to focus solely on the topic of teenage pregnancy - The Baby Borrowers and The Secret Life of the American Teenager. With teenage birthrates on the rise (they increased 3% between 2005 to 2006), it seem that the fascination is more of a reflection on what is really happening than something the media decided to focus on.
The Baby Borrowers is a show that demonstrates to teens just how difficult it is to care for a baby. It feeds teens a dose of harsh reality. In the media frenzy that glamorizes pregnancy lately, it is supposed to show that having a baby when you are young is not really all that glamorous.
Meanwhile, The Secret Life of the American Teenager doesn't take such a cautionary line. Instead it is simply about a girl who has sex with the wrong guy and gets pregnant. Ironically, the mother in the story is played by Molly Ringwald who portrayed the struggle of teenage motherhood in For Keeps? (1988). While the show has come under some criticism for not taking a stronger stance against teenage pregnancy, it does open up the opportunity for parents to talk to their kids about sex.
It's not easy for Christian teens and their parents to open up the discussion, and it can be awkward. However, with teenage pregnancies on the rise, and with sex becoming such a mainstream topic of conversation, it seems that those awkward conversations need to happen. While television shows can show the effect of teenage pregnancy, those conversations between parents and children can do a lot more to help Christian teens make better, more educated sexual decisions.