Teenage girls are ones who havebabies.
First, there are fewer of them than there used to be. This is specially striking among black teenagers. Their pregnancy rate is down 45% over a decade. Also young girls who have babies are overwhelmingly poor, at leastone third of them are the daughters of teenage mothers. And although teenagerswho havechildren are more likely to drop out of school, a black teenage mother is more likely to complete high school than a white one. Now, with all thosefacts in mind, commentator DaisyRecuber would like to tellthe story of one woman who had a baby when she was in high school.
By any measure,Nelly Johnson can be proud of her life. She graduated with honor from NYU, and at 29earnedher Masters in social work from university in Michigan .But there's one thing that people insiston making her feel ashamed of--the fact that she had a baby when she was 15. "I' ve achieved so much,” said Johnson ,"but no matter what I do or how old I am, it seems that people would forever see me as a teen mother. ” I wanted to ask Johnson what she expected?applause? To foolishly risk her future? Or shame on her? On the other hand, how long should we punishteen MOMSin order tomake examples of them. If it is teaching a tough lesson that we want, Johnson, like many other teen moms has had some hard knocks. When she got pregnant as a high school freshman, her family convinced her to keep the baby. But she nearly died in childbirth. Her daughter was 12 days old and still nameless before Johnson was well enough to see her. “She was a jewel.” said Johnson, “So I named her Diamond."
Johnson says she was ostracized by church andfamily members whobehaved as if she were contagious. When she wanted to run for home-coming court inasenior year .The school wouldn't let her, because she was a mother of a two-year- old. “Although,” she said, "teen fathers don't get the same kind of treatment.” Johnson's family urged her to leaveDiamond behind when she attended NYU. She did so reluctantly,not wanted to slough off her responsibility on others. A classmate cried when she found out that Johnson had a toddler at home. “ she thought I was just like the other students,” said Johnson. “She'd onlyread about people like me.” .When she volunteered to counsel pregnant girls at community center, she got a similar reaction. She said : "they thought she was lying. People had told them they could succeed but they'd never seen anyone do it." Johnson decided right then to become a social worker to support girlswho find themselvespregnant and saddle by Stigma. In a junior year she moved off campus and brought Diamond to New York wherethetwocontinued their education together. As she donnedto cap and gown to get Master's Degreein December, the achievement is a bitter sweet. " Just recently, a coworker found out I had a teenage daughter and she yelled at me ' what were you thinking?' said Johnson. “I was a teenage mom 13 years ago, I am not one now. When will I be able to stop living beneth such low expectations?" When I listen to Johnson’s story , I can't help but think thatthe problems of teen mothers might also have something to do with our unwillingness to forget them. We can continue to deride them for their mistakes, or we can help them overcome the past and show them by example, but love is really All About.
