16 & Pregnant/Teen Mom

This probably needs no introduction. MTV, in its desire to move farther away from music, followed the pregnancies of a handful of teenagers, even following some to today. Predictably, a number of them have gotten teen (and 20something) pregnant again, some have married, divorced, remarried again (and divorced again) and have had various levels of personal and professional success.
It's a really shitty show full of shitty people and one of my absolute guilty pleasures. I'm not sure how many of you have watched it but it's good fodder for discussion.
Also they have a British version now but it's boring IMO. They're going to have a Polish version? I wouldn't be surprised if other countries did this, too.

 

I haven't watched much of these shows but from I have been told by other people they watch it to feel better about their lives. Kind of like watching those shitty day-time/ prime-time judge shows.

 

I worked out that if the teen mom-to-be is 8 months+ at the start of the episode its going to be drama filled and entertaining, but if she's only 6 months along it will be dull.

Some of the Teen Moms have turned out so badly like Jenelle, Amber & Farrah.

Tyler and Catelyn are incredible given their background. They made all the right choices after one mistake.

 

I've always wondered if shows like this encourage teens to get pregnant. I mean most teenagers are fucking stupid. I could see one watching this show and thinking "gee if I let my boyfriend knock me up, I'll have my own baby AND my own tv show,"

 

I wouldn't be surprised at all if that happened, I also would be surprised if MTV had a rule where they won't let you be on the show if you get knocked up on purpose.

 

You never really know when MTV is going to do casting for 16 and pregnant so you can't really pre-emptively get knocked up for it. They want people who are already so far along when they start casting. I think there was a girl or two where I grew up who wanted to be on the show but they never made it too far in casting. TBH the show really helped me to do things to NOT get pregnant because hoo boy that show is a good deterrant
Also Jenelle is now on engagement #6 oh boy

 

I could see how it would help intelligent teens not want to get pregnant. I was talking more about idiot white trash teens. The ones who wouldn't think about casting or researching the rules before they get knocked up.

 

I found the show to be so fucking stupid as a teen myself, and still find it stupid today.

 

Anyone who gets teen pregnant to get on tv won't think all this through though

 

My younger cousin fucking loves Teen Mom and 16 & Pregnant...but apparently reruns of old TV shows like "What's Happenin' and "Maud" are shit according to her.

 

Cousin's shit taste confirmed.

 

I'm inclined to agree. The other night I was watching Sharktopus vs. Pterocuda (bad sci-fi/hororr films are a not-so-guilty pleasure of mine) and she said "I don't like unrealistic movies. I like reality TV. It's realistic!"

 

How old is she? Cause any older than 11 or 12, she may be..."exceptional"

 

To be fair fam, I was never dumb enough to believe reality TV was real.

 

Believe it or not she's 25 (she's was kind of damned from the start though considering both of her parents are idiots). Hell, she was talking about wanting to catch the new episode of the Bad Girls Club tonight.

 

Rat poison

 

Another good MTV shitshow is My Super Sweet Sixteen:

 

Never seen an episode of any of these shows, but after a decade in retail you get to see it in person almost every day.

 

I lived in a small town in Alberta, everyone knew at least a couple of pregnant teenagers. The best part is that they were all sure that they could do a wonderful job of raising their children, that their boyfriend would get a well-paying job, they would buy a house and everything would be wonderful. Then the boyfriend left them, and they would move in with their parents and their parents would basically raise the baby for them. I'd say that it's sad, but really having the parents raise the baby means that the baby has a good upbringing during the most important years of his/her development, which is kind of nice. Plus, the girl basically gets the kick that she needs to actually get a decent job to support her child's development once the kid becomes older, so that's nice.

I mean, there actually is a number of pregnant teen stories that don't end well at all, but oddly enough they seemed to be in the minority.