Babies Having Babies... Is Hollywood to Blame?

With everyone looking at celebrities' baby bumps, more girls at home are struck with baby fever

With Angelina Jolie, Jamie Lynn Spears, and so many other stars having babies these days, it seems like the nation has become inflicted with a case of "baby fever." Everyone is buying tabloids to see which star is pregnant and entertainment news channels have a field day when a star gives birth. But Hollywood's influence seems to have hit home with some people, particulary the families of teenage girls who want a baby.

In the August 2008 issue of CosmoGIRL!, they had a feature entitled "Pregnant on Purpose." The author, Nancy Redd describes Hollywood's new status symbol as being a baby bump-- "a pregnant teen was depicted as a likeable lead character in the Oscar-winning movie Juno," for example. And for the first time in over a decade, the teenage pregnancy rate is up-- one out of every 24 girls ages 15 to 19 (around 435,000) is likely to give birth this year.

Apparently, these girls are under the impression that they can be glamorous and pregnant, just like these celebrities. They see how easy it looks and really think that it's easy to have a baby. The big difference is that celebrities can afford to have babies, while middle class girls may not be able to.

Dr. Hatim Omar, M.D., director of the Adolescent Medicine and Young Parent Program at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, told CosmoGIRL! that some teenage girls become pregnant because "they were desperate for attention and unconditional love." Some girls also get pregnant because "they weren't sure if their boyfriends truly loved them, but they knew thay could be certain of the love of a baby," Wendy Hart Beckman, author of Dating, Relationships, and Sexuality: What Teens Should Know, told CosmoGIRL!

The whole point is, girls should not want a baby because it's mating season in Hollywood. They should wait and finish high school, and even college, before they have a baby. Some teen mothers agree, one, Elizabeth from New York City told CosmoGIRL!: "I love my son, but I could have given him a better life if I'd gone to college first... I wish I would have waited."