14 DAY TRIAL // The success registered by MTV with shows like “Teen Mom” and “16 and Pregnant,” as well as the short-lived fame the girls on these shows seem to enjoy, has prompted a worrying new trend: that of teens getting pregnant on purpose to score an audition for a reality show.
A new report in PopEater suggests more and more teens are having unprotected relations in order to become pregnant, land a part in one of the many reality shows now running and thus, in their mind, become famous.
Television is, of course, to blame for this, PopEater implies, for creating a vehicle for the proverbial 15 minutes of fame that can make of anyone a shooting star, as long as certain conditions are met.
In the case of teens, one of them would be to become pregnant if they want to be on one show in the vein of those mentioned above.
“This is yet another example of the desperation of fame,” says Matt Titus, a relationship expert from TheLoveConsultants. For these girls, having a child is no different than being able to eat bugs in front of the camera.
“The sad state of reality television has created a low brow vehicle for untainted train wreck personalities to display their private lives. Getting pregnant to be famous is like eating as many cockroaches as possible in a one minute period,” Titus explains.
PopEater explains that more and more teenagers are turning to pregnancy as their vehicle to stardom because, obviously, casting for a show of the type is not as easy as casting is, say, for a dating show: first of all, finding the right teenagers who are also pregnant, is quite tricky.
That still doesn’t make it right, Beth Feldman, founder of the website RoleMommy, stresses for the same e-zine, because it makes of parenthood a joke, something that is entirely dependent on exposure to the camera.
“Becoming a parent is a responsibility that no one should take lightly and for a teenager to think that a pregnancy could lead to instant fame and fortune is absurd,” Feldman says.
“Parenting is a lifetime commitment and teens have their own lives ahead of them. Let them grow up before they take the responsibility of caring for another human being,” she adds.