Since I can remember, it's always been horrible if a woman got pregnant at a young age. This article isn't about me, it's about the girls out there who get pregnant in high school or in their early 20's and are labeled a "slut" or "whore." Someone needs to speak up about how this is still bullying, and it doesn't make it okay just because they are "knocked up." I can't even imagine what else pregnant teens hear, especially in our generation. I think we are all small minded when it comes to teen pregnancy because premarital sex has been embedded in the back of our minds as a sin and supposedly one of the worst things that can ever happen in this world.
News flash, it's not. What comes to mind when I think of some of the worst things in the world, I think of terrorists attacks, homeless veterans, nuclear war, suicide, cancer, or living in Rockford, Illinois. I could think of a hundred other things worse than starting new life. Not saying it's easy to raise a child, but I've always admired young moms and their strength through this frowned upon experience.
Some of my closest friends carried a baby in high school and lost respect from many other friends, parents and even teachers. Pregnancy in high school automatically made a girl disgusting and trashy. It didn't matter if she was in a relationship or was hooking up with random guys every so often. You're a slut if you're young and pregnant and that statement baffles me. Just remember you are not the one with the big belly, walking down halls of whispering and dirty looks.
We have all had experience of being the talk of the school or being bullied about something we can't help, so why are we bashing someone because they accidentally got pregnant? The girls who sleep around with a new guy every week aren't nearly as "slutty" as the girl who lost her virginity to a guy who wasn't her boyfriend only because she ended up pregnant. Reading that statement out loud probably made you think that no one would say or think that in that situation.
However, the sad truth is that they do because teens are hungry for gossip as long as it's not their name coming out of everyone elses mouth. Little do we know that being pregnant may be the best thing that could of happened to them. We believe that its the worst thing that could happen to any young woman, but for some it is completely life changing, and life changing for the better at that. They have new feelings and new sensations going on in their body all the time, feelings that change their minds about life and the world.
My friends say that being pregnant is amazing. They claim that their newborn baby showers them in more love than they have ever experienced in life. I'm sure we all go a little nuts when seeing cute babies with big eyes and toothless smiles, but can you imagine creating one yourself? You have this little person who looks like you and just absolutely adores you and worships your attention.
Odds are all the hurtful comments and rumors being spread about them are forgotten with the new joy in their lives, but it doesn't change the point that people are still harshly judging young women because of something that happened to them. You assume they are the worst kind of person, the kind that opens her body to whomever, whenever, and that because of their age they simply can't be a good mother. You assume the worst instead of getting to know to truth.
It's still bullying, and it's still not okay.