Forthcoming
Kindergarten & College
Not About Me: A Memoir of Teen Pregnancy in the Bible Belt
She was born on my eighteenth birthday, ten days after high school graduation. Class of 1998 in Paris, not the French one, but a North Tennessee town where kudzu climbs the banks of Kentucky Lake, I found out I was pregnant the day I was nominated for homecoming queen. Instead of red roses and a rhinestone tiara, by holiday break I had a shotgun wedding and a basketball belly.
Sad to say, but knocked up is not news. The season premier of MTV’s “Teen Mom,” a spin-off of “16 and Pregnant,” broke network records, attracting 3.6 million viewers. Young montherhood glitters in the media, but what about the true grit story of a real girl? My mom did not run for President. I did not get paid to have cameras follow me around. I sure didn't make a pact to get pregnant in high school, but I owned my lot in life - cradle, baby and all.
Pregnancy was only the beginning. A child is forever. What makes my story different is what happens ten years later.
She was born on my eighteenth birthday, ten days after high school graduation. Class of 1998 in Paris, not the French one, but a North Tennessee town where kudzu climbs the banks of Kentucky Lake, I found out I was pregnant the day I was nominated for homecoming queen. Instead of red roses and a rhinestone tiara, by holiday break I had a shotgun wedding and a basketball belly.
Sad to say, but knocked up is not news. The season premier of MTV’s “Teen Mom,” a spin-off of “16 and Pregnant,” broke network records, attracting 3.6 million viewers. Young montherhood glitters in the media, but what about the true grit story of a real girl? My mom did not run for President. I did not get paid to have cameras follow me around. I sure didn't make a pact to get pregnant in high school, but I owned my lot in life - cradle, baby and all.
Pregnancy was only the beginning. A child is forever. What makes my story different is what happens ten years later.
