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Yearbook photos of teen moms spark backlash, support
Laura T. CoffeyTODAY2 hours ago
Mesa High School's 2013-14 yearbook features two pages titled "I'm Working a Double Shift," a reference to the responsibilities of high school students who also are parents.
Many parents — and quite a few students — are not happy about a two-page spread in an Arizona high school yearbook that features teenage students who are either pregnant or have babies.
Pages 40 and 41 of this year’s Mesa High School yearbook have sparked an outpouring of emotional feedback from parents and grandparents concerned about seeing teen pregnancy portrayed in a positive light. Many have worried that the prominent display of attractive family photos in a yearbook could glamorize teen parenthood and make it look appealing.
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But one psychologist who works with adolescents has a different take on the matter: She says the inclusion of teen moms and their babies in the yearbook is “all good.”
“I’ll tell you why,” Dr. Barbara Greenberg, a clinical psychologist who has specialized in the treatment of adolescents for 30 years, told TODAY.com. “We have, as a community, been doing a disservice to our girls for a long time by making them live with shame and embarrassment and secrets.
“And you know what shame and embarrassment and secrets lead to? They lead to anxiety and depression. Teenage girls have three times the rate of depression as teen boys ... because we encourage them to be people pleasers and good little girls, and to keep secrets.”
continued at link
http://www.today.com/moms/yearbook-photos-pregnant-teens-spark-backlash-support-2D79690919
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Frustratedlady
(16,254 posts)The mothers bear the most criticism and scorn while many fathers go their merry way.
appal_jack
(3,813 posts)Response to KittyWampus (Original post)
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geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)
Gravitycollapse
(8,155 posts)Look at it. Stare into its wondrous gaze.
Starry Messenger
(32,342 posts)rug
(82,333 posts)It's a good recognition of reality, both for them and their kids to look back on.
lumberjack_jeff
(33,224 posts)It could be an interesting basis for a study. Is teen parenthood promoted by glamorization or by marginalization, stigmatization and rebellion?
JI7
(89,252 posts)joeglow3
(6,228 posts)Gravitycollapse
(8,155 posts)I don't think the photos glorify it either. Educating teenagers on the costs of teen pregnancy will have a much greater impact than these photos or snippets.
pacalo
(24,721 posts)featured. I see this as a positive; children & young adults live up to the regard given to them.
DRoseDARs
(6,810 posts)It's bad enough these teen girls and the teen fathers of their children made poor life choices, but is it necessary for the busybodies to demand they be made non-persons for those mistakes? The yearbook staff decided to be supportive of these too-young families. Leave them alone or help them, otherwise fuck off and mind your own business.
alp227
(32,030 posts)OldRedneck
(1,397 posts). . . each teenage mother had been wearing a Scarlet Letter.
dballance
(5,756 posts)I'm willing to bet a lot of these parents who are in an uproar are the same stick-in-the-butt, head-in-the-sand people who advocate abstinence-only sex education. AZ does seem to rank pretty high in the realm of ignorant, backwards policies. Every time I see something really stupid like this I wonder if it's FL, TX, or AZ that is the state in which it happens.
Jenoch
(7,720 posts)out of wedlock (how's that for right out of the old days?). I had no idea what was going on at the time since I was just 5 years old. I do remember the 'shame' however. This was 1970. That little girl is now 43 with two daughters of her own and is a lawyer. Alas, my sister died 20 years ago and did not see her daughter's success in both her education and her family.
