Entry 1 - Draft 4

The question I am going to be doing research on through the course of a couple months is: What are the major influences of teenage sex and pregnancies?


Teenage pregnancy has been something constantly present in my, and many of my family members lives. I have a very personal experience with this topic because most of the women in my family have gotten pregnant at a very early age. My grandmother had my mother when she was only 15 and couldn't handle being responsible for a baby so she gave my mom up for adoption. Sad thing was, she continued having children and putting them up for adoption - for 3 more kids! My mom then got pregnant for the first time when she was 16 by a boy who ended up going MIA and never was involved with the pregnancy or my older sister. I also have 3 sisters and two of them got pregnant early. One dropped out of high school at the end of her senior year to runaway from home, have a baby, and get married (a marriage that only lasted less than a year) and the other dropped out of her first semester of college to get pregnant and get married as well (a marriage that was very rocky and ended on bad terms).


I first got interested in this subject matter because of the first hand experience of teen pregnancy in my very own family and I myself have seen immediate effects of sex and pregnancy at an early age. These are both two very big parts of our everyday lives, that in reality shouldn't be at all. Another big influence of my decision was the fact that a good handful of popular television shows and networks are emphasizing teenage mothers and pregnancies. I understandthat it is something that is growing, and some TV companies feel the more exposure to the subject the more teenagers will understand about it. In my opinion, however, I just see the teens who watch the show envy the main characters' lives when only the glamorous events are shown and only a glimpse of the hard times are and it also desensitizes the idea of sex. I just like the idea of learning more on the subject so I can have a more educated opinion on the matter.


I feel this topic is important because teenage sex is becoming something kids are doing at an earlier age then its been in years. Kids who are 15 years old shouldn't be having sex, because its not all just about pleasure. There are emotions involved and consequences that can be life changing, that young children may not be completely aware of. The younger and more naive population has a habit of jumping into things, often times without much thought and it is especially bad when they are doing this with sex. I like the fact that through this research I am furthering my knowledge on what I can do to help the too young population from making mistakes that change everything.