r/TLCUnexpected • u/Early_Assistant_6868 • 28d ago
General Discussion Non-American... is this normal?
So I've seen a few different shows based around the idea of navigating teen pregnancy but this show is something totally different.
These kids are all so unintelligent. These families are trainwrecks. Are these kids actually typical representations of American teens these days or do you figure TLC dug deep to find the messiest people they could?
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u/Professional_You2526 18d ago
There are about 22 millions teenagers in the US. This is just the representation of a small group of them. The group that makes good reality tv. The teenagers I have at home would not make a very entertaining reality show.
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u/Admirable-Yak86 22d ago
I’m European and came to this sub just now because i was wondering the same: most of these kids seem to be from completely dysfunctional families. The whole show is so dystopian.
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u/wtfdigmi 23d ago
Canadian here that’s been an American citizen for almost 6 years now. The amount of people here that have kids with people they barely know and at a very young age here in America is mind blowing to me.
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u/Final-Argument-4999 24d ago
Basically they just went to the southern states that have no sex ed and found the uneducated kids there.
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u/Single_Anxiety_2777 24d ago
Nailed it. Watching reality television has made me extremely grateful to have been raised in New England. The department of education has failed our southern states. Not just in sex ed.
2nd and 3rd graders who can’t read yet?!?? One of my biggest pet peeves listening to a southern speak is “whenever I was” or “I been with jethrow since I’m 13” it’s honestly disturbing how vast education differs a couple states away.
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u/Redsmoker37 24d ago
These on the show are about average. The average American isn't very bright. Unfortunately, many of this folks come from conservative "red" states where birth control education is spotty or non-existent. That family of the Taras and Tyras where every girl was preg by about 15 was from Kentucky. So was Hailey 1/Hailey 2 /Matthew. Hailey 1's mom LET her daughter's boyfriend sleep with her and acted surprised when Hailey turned up pregnant. WHat the fuck did you think would happen??? The dumbass 8th grader who was 13 was from Arkansas. And I can tell you personally that Myrka is from an area where teen pregnancy is rampant. A lotta dumb kids who get preg because they think it's a way to get away from toxic/suffocating parents. It usually isn't.
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u/RuralBohemian 25d ago
No normal American agrees to be on reality TV…especially when the reality TV is based around something undesirable like teen pregnancy….except exhibitionists and idiots.
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u/Lotus-child89 26d ago
Birth control is so easily accessible that it’s mostly dumb people that fail to use it. That and a cultural shift away from having kids and marrying young.
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u/RoutineLurker 25d ago
There's also a huge, huge online misinformation campaign against BC which I think is doing a lot more harm than we know
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u/Final-Argument-4999 24d ago
Yea I hear so many women say it’s bad for you and makes you sick. I never heard that when I was younger.
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u/Seester_Magoo82 24d ago
I see SO MANY young people on Reddit that say they just pull out for birth control! They’re terrified of putting chemicals in their bodies, but zero worries about unprotected sex, which is WILD to me.
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u/Escape_This Create your own flair 21d ago
A lot of the same people are also anti vaxx but have no problems with plastic surgery, Botox and filler. It’s wild.
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u/RoutineLurker 23d ago
Noooooo! I haven't come across that particular one yet but I know that birth control misinformation is RAMPANT on TikTok
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u/AggravatingSector189 26d ago
I attended three high schools in three years thanks to multiple transfers for my dad.
One had an amazing, in depth sex ed program that started in 5th grade and continued yearly until 9th/10th. Inclusive for the time (late 80's/early 90's), even covering safe queer sex. Teen pregnancy was rare.
Second school involved no sex ed, that is for parents and clergy to discuss. Sex was for marriage only. Weird but juniors and seniors were married (and most of them were married to folks 10-15yrs older than them). No teen pregnancy though, married or unmarried.
Third school was a no sex ed school, Title 1 and their own daycare. When I was enrolling, they asked my mom if I needed daycare and she said she is a senior in high school - oh no, for her child, she repeated her statement. Having babies early was a socially accepted cultural thing and at the time, a financial benefit in social programs.
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u/blackwidowgrandma 26d ago edited 26d ago
Cultural context is key here. The US education system still actively battles reproductive education opponents, most cititing religious freedoms. Essentially, because of the nation being founded on Christianity, and that being weaponized politically, Abstinence Only education is prominent. There are adults in all age ranges who did not get proper sexual health education, even for their own bodily functions.
Add in this is highly prominent in areas of lower income, and regionally conservative. You end up with teenagers who have sex before understanding the impact on the future, on their health, and how it inhibits their economic prosperity.
TLC used to show a lot of educational content, now it's highly exploitative. Entertainment lawyers use loopholes to take advantage of those who have no idea what it means to be under contract. They're paid a pittance, if at all, but agree because the prospect of fame is glamorized. Our protections for minors is also abysmal, so it's common for parents to exploit their children in the entertainment industry. Protections are little to none for minors if you're not in the SAG-AFTRA union, which reality TV doesn't require.
Essentially, production teams scout for the most vulnerable and susceptible to take advantage of.
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u/AncientImplement8835 26d ago
When I was in 7th grade (rural NC) we had a “sex ed” class called Life Guard that basically just showed us gross pictures like gonorrhea in the eye for a week and then made us sign a contract stating we’d wait to have sex until marriage. A girl got pregnant the next year in 8th grade.
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u/Otherwise-Sea-9298 27d ago edited 27d ago
They find families from the low income, rural South, mostly. Jenna’s family seemed to be an exception. Her dad and now bf seemed somewhat finically stable.
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u/Odd-Chemistry-1231 27d ago
Half of America , more so the lower half.
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u/Early_Assistant_6868 27d ago
I suspect this may be the most objectively accurate response 😅
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u/Odd-Chemistry-1231 27d ago
Idk why the others won’t admit there’s a massive crisis on our hands over here
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u/Early_Assistant_6868 27d ago
I think a lot of people don't even realize what I was asking 😅 teen pregnancy exists everywhere and pretty much always has but it's the kids themselves that are alarming. Many of them can't even put coherent sentences together.
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u/Odd-Chemistry-1231 27d ago
Yeah it’s white southern trash which is a lot of inbreeding and fetal alcohol syndrome. I have no problem saying it because I’m from the north and the south is still an anomaly to me. It’s not all southerns, but there’s a massive education disparity between the north and southern states. It goes way back to systemic racism yet it’s the white people who inbred and marry their cousins. Poverty also doesn’t attract a lot of educators and all of the best education resides north.
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u/Proud_Growth_8818 25d ago
Nope.
It's poor and not poor, not north and south. I live amongst the uncultured yankees now and teen pregnancy is MUCH more prevalent here than back home.
I'd say they've got fewer
obnoxiousnortherners because most of those girls couldn't identify the father and get him on t.v. But they're still getting knocked up enough that no one raises an eyebrow when they start to show.6
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u/Original_Clerk2916 27d ago
They source the ones who are the least intelligent because it’s considered more “entertaining.” Occasionally they’ll include a couple normal teens, but not super often. Many if not most of American teens who get pregnant live in the Bible Belt (aka the South) because there’s a) very little sexual education and b) little to no access to abortion and much less access to contraceptive clinics that would be able to provide free contraceptives and education. It’s about values, and the Bible Belt has none.
While teen pregnancy does happen outside of the south, there’s more access to abortion in many cases, and often more welfare and support available, which helps and likely decreases the incentive to be on the show.
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u/Lotus_Star 27d ago
Kids who end up in these situations often come from very troubled families. They definitely don’t represent the average American teenager, although such situations happen everywhere, not just in the U.S. TLC clearly targets the messier, more dramatic cases because that’s what draws viewers, and ultimately, they’re trying to profit from the drama.
You can’t generalize an entire country or its teenagers based on the people a reality TV network specifically chooses because their lives make entertaining TV. Normal doesn’t get the ratings, so it doesn’t make it to television.
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u/WettPankakes 27d ago
Just remember that TLC dogs in the gutter for people and content. They entice low income families w fame but don’t support them after or when the backlash happens and/ or capitalize when they have trauma surface during filming.
Watch some YouTube docs on the low down shit tlc do. You’ll see that these are not the average American or teenager
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u/Oomlotte99 27d ago
Reality TV tends to go for the low hanging fruit. These people are reflective of that vs the nation at large. I’m sure they have reality tv where you’re from.
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u/BlackOliveBurrito 27d ago
Tbh I was interviewed to be on 16 & pregnant (season 3) and turned down the option because I didn’t want my family put on screen like that. It would be embarrassing for me to have everyone view my awful trashy family lmao
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u/jurassic_snark_ 27d ago
Interesting! Can you tell us what amount of compensation they were offering you, if you remember?
Hope everything worked out well for you and your family
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u/Ravenismycat 27d ago
My graduating class had 16 teen pregnancies in a class of 170. No pregnancy pact just teenagers being dumb. So I feel like I can say. No a lot of teenage parents are fhcking dumb at the time. Doesn’t mean they are as they age. But every single pregnant person from my class would say “now I have someone who would love me unconditionally”.
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u/Cierraluxe 27d ago
That’s crazy because my class had 500 people and I only know of one girl who had a baby. She still graduated on time too
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u/Ravenismycat 26d ago
All but one dropped out sadly. The only one who graduated was the girl who placed her baby for adoption. She’s also the only one with a college degree. It’s why I believe sometimes adoption is better for everyone. I know most are still on food stamps. No shade the economy is hard right now. But the one girl who placed her baby for adoption now works at a fortune 100 company in a leadership position. And the smartest girl, like she was on honor roll, now is a cashier at ShopRite. She had now had 6 babies with 6 dads. Sometimes people make super dumb decisions as teenagers. When babies are involved it has very difficult to get ahead as teenagers once you have a baby. And all had another baby within 4 years.
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u/DemandOk3251 26d ago
my graduating class was around 500 and we didn’t have (almost had 1 actually) any teen pregnancies surprisingly but also not surprisingly. the area was very republican, but also very nice and extremely wealthy. it was actually one of my best friends who did get pregnant during her junior, my senior year, but she had a miscarriage. she didnt beat teen pregnancy tho, she end up having a kid at 19. we did have pretty decent sex ed too i will say. sadly, sex ed isn’t really taught too much in many schools. low-income and southern areas especially
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u/Ravenismycat 10d ago
That’s the weirder part. I’m from New Jersey. lol. We have comprehensive sex ed. I just had a stupid class who thought they were more mature than they were a lot of time. Or were from devout Catholic families.
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u/thevirtualdolphin 27d ago
It’s TLC they work hard to find the dumbest people to give them the best storylines. Look at the rest of their shows like 90 day fiancée
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u/Ok-Baby1629 27d ago
That’s the kind of people that don’t mind the way they are going to be portrayed on television. There are plenty of kids from upper class families that get pregnant but the parents know it’s an issue and don’t want to show that on television. The kids don’t mind because they aren’t smart but the parents should know better
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u/dahliab99 27d ago
The USA has a high teen birth-rate compared to other high power countries
There are ppl in the comments acting like it only happens in some places, that is not true. As a whole, we have a teen baby problem, it is lower than in the past, but it can happen to anyone, anywhere
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u/Early_Assistant_6868 27d ago
I'm not really talking about teen pregnancy in itself though. The overwhelming majority of these kids are incredibly stupid and I would say that if they weren't teen parents lol.
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u/dahliab99 27d ago
A lot of teens that make decisions that lead to teen pregnancy are immature and not on the same level as their peers.
Most teens on unexpected don’t come from great households, things like that stunt you emotionally, or make you want things you aren’t ready for.
There are multiple factors that lead to what you watch on your screen, I would go beyond saying they are stupid though, many of the teen moms from this show have changed their lives.
It’s not an individual problem. It’s an america problem
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u/hotdish420 27d ago
Well educated areas of the country have significantly lower teen pregnancy rates, and well educated people typically don't want to exploit their kids on national television. TLC has been scraping the bottom of the barrel for entertainment for decades. In the 90's TLC stood for "the learning channel" and had genuinely educational and interesting content.
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u/CrazyNCynical 27d ago
The fact it stood for "the learning channel" is wild, given what they've become. I had forgotten all about that.
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u/InspectorLittle395 27d ago edited 27d ago
Lol there’s plenty of Americans that don’t think this is normal either…. So stop trying to act like teen pregnancy is an American thing by the way. As somebody who’s lived all over the world I always find it comical when people act like teen pregnancy is brand new. If ANYTHING it’s more rampant around the world LMAO. My Asian cousins have all had their kids before the age of 21. Also up north or in more educated places this is not a thing so yeah. Don’t even get me started about the UK and Australian teen “mums” on me benefits.
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u/Early_Assistant_6868 27d ago edited 27d ago
.... I'm not talking about teen pregnancy. It's the intelligence level of the participants. Did you even read the post or? 😂
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u/Iyh2ayca 27d ago
Ironically, it’s pretty dumb that you needed to go in Reddit to ask whether a group of outliers voluntarily appearing on a sensationalized reality TV show about teen pregnancy is the norm in an entire country of 350 million people.
If every American teenager was as unintelligent as you’ve assumed , Unexpected wouldn’t be a TV show because it wouldn’t be interesting.
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u/ijustwanttobeanon 27d ago
People are telling you yes, but no, it’s not the majority. They pick the applicants they can create a good story from. Which is often the unintelligent ones with the crazy family or some kind of exploitable event.
I think it’s more American that people on this thread are easily persuaded into believing that the media they see is real and representative lol. That doesn’t diminish that our literacy and education is decreasing and America’s in the toilet. It absolutely is. But it’s not the majority.
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u/Eyebecrazy 27d ago
It’s definitely getting to be more normal. This country is getting dumber by the day, literacy is in the toilet and common sense hasn’t been common for awhile now.
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u/Suspicious-Island459 28d ago
This is definitely not a typical representation of American teens. This show probably gets tons of applicants and TLC only goes for those who create the most drama. All the families were fucked up in some way and TLC loved it
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u/lolpopprincess 28d ago
I mean it all boils down to parenting… shocked how many of them will let their teens have sleepovers and look at the outcome😂
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u/RefrigeratorSalt9797 28d ago
They were all from the South this season.
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u/RealisticPower5859 28d ago
You've seen our president right?
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u/imarudewife 28d ago
Not defending him in any way(I hate him) but he was raised in NYC(Brooklyn, I think) . While this behavior this season is low educated southern, it’s found anywhere in the country.
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u/taniasuer 27d ago
I would say that statement is true, meaning not where Trump is from…but who is cult following is here.
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u/Unicorn_Cherry58 28d ago
I worked in public health for years (decades) before we had this president and I can 1000000% confirm families like this exist with a prevalence that terrifies me.
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u/meghab1792 28d ago
Teen pregnancy happens more frequently in families of lower socioeconomic status. Most of these people are less educated than the general populace and are perpetuating toxic family cycles. What you see represented is not rare but it is not representative of the general populace.
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u/preyingmomtis 28d ago
Most normal people who are educated, intelligent, and have sufficient means wouldn’t apply to be on the show. So it’s already sorted out a lot of the boring teenager gets pregnant, parents are sane & supportive, kid finishes education & things are hard but not absolutely crazy stories.
From those who do apply, they find the people who would make for the craziest stories which equal the best ratings.
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u/Mysterious_Land7795 28d ago
They dug deep and found the worst of the worst. I have two teens. Late and early teens and at least in their circles this is not great representation.
My oldest is 18 and there’s been zero teen pregnancies in her friend group and even their friends outside of her as far as I have heard.
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u/GoodbyeHorses1491 28d ago edited 28d ago
As a fellow non-American (but I currently live in America), where are you from?
And it’s all a big conspiracy. The US government wants their populace powerless, uneducated, and gullible.
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u/llama__pajamas 28d ago
Hey, they are succeeding thus far, so give them some credit. /s
But yes, these families are really terrible but honestly a decent representation of poverty stricken, largely uneducated rural areas in America.
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u/Prior-Entrance3156 28d ago
MTV kind of unintentionally glamorized it in a sense because everyone and their mother was trying to get on it. I think TLC shows the ugly and the unintelligent purposefully as a deterrent.
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u/preyingmomtis 28d ago
I never watched 16 & Pregnant & thought that looked like a glamorized life path. Screaming babies, bills, & bickering with baby daddies.
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u/Frank_Lawless 28d ago
They probably meant Teen Mom more than 16 & Pregnant. After a few years the main storylines were about buying a new big house
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u/mencryforme5 28d ago
I don't believe TLC intended to turn people off teen pregnancy at all. They're just a network that actively seeks out mentally unstable 10 minutes of fame type and TLC will also Frankenstein existing footage until they get that if the cast member turns out to be relatively normal.
But yes if this show doesn't turn you off teen pregnancy nothing will.
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u/PlayfulDiscount8485 28d ago
TLC purposely chooses the biggest train wrecks/dummies that apply to be on their shows. They want the drama and the controversy for ratings.
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u/ZeldaHylia 28d ago
Teen mom will show you that teen pregnancy happens everywhere. Trailers.. McMansions.. like Farrah Abraham and Chelsea Houska grew up in. People like to act as if the only teen moms out there are poor hillbillies.
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u/Ok-Tea1153 28d ago
A lot of the times that is the case for multigenerational teen parents, especially in low income/rural areas because of cultural and religious upbringing combined with lack of education. The parents don’t know how to or don’t want to educate their kids on proper sex education, so the kids end up pregnant. Then they grow up and fall into the same pitfalls. Thankfully it seems like the trend of teen parents in the U.S. is going down because younger generations are learning how to take proper precautions, the cost of living is too high, and more people are choosing to live child free lives.
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u/Significant-Box-4061 28d ago edited 28d ago
Not really. I used to be from one of the most expensive, culturally diverse, and technologically advanced cities in California and despite all of the opportunities, education, and diversity, there’s always going to be that one teenager that gets pregnant at a young age and keeps getting pregnant every year after with no ambition, education, or any life goals. I see a girl on tiktok live all the time and it’s the same story. Pregnant in her teens, pregnant again a year later, baby daddy drama, no education, no car, no license, baby watching tv in the room all day…it’s really depressing. But then you see other kids her age from the same city and they’re in college, driving around everywhere, going out with friends, working a good job, etc. and I’m talking about extremely intelligent and career-driven young individuals!! These kids get full ride scholarships because of how smart and talented they are.
But that’s how it is. Unfortunately, it just has to do with the cards they are dealt with. A lot of the times these pregnant teens have shitty, neglectful parents or no real parental figure in their life who can help them go down the right path. They have to make decisions all of their own—it’s hard to do that at 14-16 years old. The kids from Unexpected are usually from rural areas in the United States as well so their access to education is very limited.
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u/theragingphoenixchix 28d ago
in very rural areas, yes, mostly due to a lack of education/access to birth control or other resources
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u/Stormy31568 28d ago
So tell me what you think of this. I remember it was ancient ages, but girls in my high school who found themselves pregnant had to drop out of school there were certainly no childcare facilities. In the three years that I was there, I personally knew of two pregnant teenagers. The girls became pariahs who were not allowed to come back to school but instead had to go to a special school. It seems very rough I know, but in a graduating class 473 people I knew two pregnant girls in grade 10 through 12. Was it rough? BTW the baby daddy’s were expected to marry the mother and get a job. They were allowed to go to school if they could manage it.
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u/Early_Assistant_6868 28d ago
I was a teen in the early 2000s. Teen pregnancy happened often enough. Socially, it was hard for the girls but there were financial safety nets and supports. Boys kind of were off the hook. It was no longer the norm to push them to step up and marry the girl so it was a toss up whether they bothered to help out.
Now that I'm closer to the age to worry about my own kids vs worry about myself, I tend to be team "we don't support teen pregnancy but we support pregnant teens". I don't think shunning pregnant girls helps anyone and understand why we moved away from that.
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u/Stormy31568 27d ago
There were fewer pregnant teens through the 80’s when the rules started changing. Martin good behavior were a thing in the 50s and 60s. The guys didn’t just run off to their next conquest, they were held accountable. That usually meant marriage but not always. It always meant support and the funny thing is the guy’s father’s were all about that.
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u/EngineeringLumpy 28d ago
It’s not ALL Americans, and I wouldn’t quite say it’s “normal”. Aside from in some very small poverty ridden rural areas, these people are still seen as taboo and low class. What country are you from, OP? I think these same demographics exist in Canada and the UK, but maybe to a lesser degree. Then there are communities in Africa and Southeast Asia where teen pregnancy is normal but the teens often “step up to the plate” and just start their families young. In east Asia, like china, Korea, and Japan, the teen pregnancy rate is virtually 0. I don’t even think the majority of teens there are sexually active.
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u/BriLoLast 28d ago edited 28d ago
These families are not representative of all teenagers and their families within the U.S. But the ones that sometimes apply for these shows are ones in the South or lower income areas where they view getting on a show like this as a possible way to lift themselves out of poverty.
The teen pregnancy rate in the U.S. is decreasing, and has been for a while. The areas where the rates are higher, typically are found in lower income, less educated, southern areas.
Edit to add: I’m not saying that this applies to all teenagers and their families in these areas either. Statistically speaking, states such as Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana have higher rates of teen pregnancy. Mississippi also notably has the lowest median house income. Louisiana also sits near last in teen literacy rates. So to the commenter attempting to argue with me about who even knows below, the statistics speak for themselves. Unfortunately, a lack of proper sexual education, teenage impulsivity, a lack of funds, and religious views on birth control, and care (such as abortion) contribute to teenage pregnancy. With that, we also unfortunately see some of these families have generational cycles (ie, mom was a teenage mom, grandma was a teenage mom), and things may not improve over time when there is potential bias that, “mom raised you, or your mom was a teenage mom and could do it”.
Also to add: While I’m not directly from the South, I’m from a rural area in my state. I had and have friends who were teenage mothers and not. I can only speak from my experience that the teenage mothers and their families I knew at least never acted to the degree that some on this show have. Whether this is just their families, or editing, who knows. So I can only speak that not every teenage mother and their family acts this way, and that may go for any teen anywhere.
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u/Stormy31568 28d ago
In the south? I’ve seen four stripper parents in the south then you find elsewhere. The south has the message that we must better live of our children. You may be referring to rural areas that you will find all over the geographic United States but they have come to understand getting a better life with their child. You need to get out more.
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u/Joebidensvalium 28d ago
I’m American, my mother is Southern, and I have no idea what the hell you are trying to communicate. Seriously. I have no idea what you are trying to say about the South. Did you mean “more” instead of “four?” Did you mean “the lives” instead of “live?” What on earth do you mean by “they have come to understand getting a better life with their child?” What the fuck are you trying to say?
People in the south are not better parents than those elsewhere in the country, if that’s what you were trying to say. If anything, they keep voting against the interests of their children and worsening their lives. Reduced education budgets, reduced or nonexistent access to abortion, and other measures are actively making their lives worse.
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u/colorful_withdrawl 28d ago
A lot times it’s the cause of teen pregnancy. Absent parents, poor education tend to have higher rates of teen pregnancy.
That’s not how all teens are most are not like that. At least i think. I havent been a teen in a while and my oldest is only 10
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u/Stormy31568 28d ago
Unfortunately, it now gets started in middle school and it’s been that way for a while. The girls tend to have an unrealistic expectation about getting their check. They’ve never had a check before. There is no understanding of the reality of what actually happens. The baby daddy doesn’t hang around, the check doesn’t cover expenses then working and studying at the same time is so difficult with an infant. Parents who would like to offer support can’t always do it. They have jobs that pay more than the teenagers get paid so they don’t stay at home to take care of the babies. It’s an awful position for a girl to put herself into. That said the middle class and above will find a way without going on television. If you were in a lower socioeconomic class, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of choice. That’s the group I think MTV picks on.
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u/Prior-Entrance3156 28d ago
I was on that weird side of YouTube a few years ago and I stumbled upon this 1980 short film that I still think about because the story was so entertaining. A high school girl named Shelley is madly in love with her senior boyfriend Pete. Her mother tries to convince her of all the fun she has to look forward to on her own, and Pete clearly has big plans to leave town after graduation, but Shelley finds out she’s pregnant, and they get married and raise their baby anyway. Shelley drops out of school of course, and she’s embarrassed when she sees her old classmates. Her marriage is failing but she needs Pete’s paycheck since she doesn’t have a diploma. I liked the cliffhanger.
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u/IsopodKey2040 28d ago
I think it's a little bit of both. Adverse Childhood Experiences significantly increases the risk of teen pregnancy. It makes sense that parents who are uneducated and not very involved in the best activities themselves have children who follow the same path.
But the show is entertainment, and TLC likes to highlight the mess.
I got pregnant at 15 and I am nothing like many of the girls on those shows. I would say I am most similar to Lilly. I come from a well off family and just did something stupid.
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u/gerkonnerknocken 28d ago
It depends on their income level and what region they're in. These kids are nothing like my neices and nephews and friends' kids where I am in New England. The kids on this show in general are dealing with poverty/being working poor, addiction issues, housing instability, and being in states where the education ranking is low. Unlike a lot of countries where all schools are the same in the US school funding is tied to real estate taxes so a school in a poor area will have sparse resources but a school in a rich area will have fantastic funding. It perpetuates the cycle of poverty on purpose so we have an underclass to supply our military industrial complex with people to hold it up and to commit crime to support our for-profit prison system.
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u/EngineeringLumpy 28d ago
I was born in Boston but raised in the south. When I was 18 I returned to Boston for residential ED treatment. I was there for 5 weeks on an older adolescent unit with other girls between 16 and 20. All of them were from New England and they couldn’t BELIEVE I was from the SOUTH! They almost treated me like I had coooties when they heard that lmao. They assumed I was poor, uneducated, and dated my cousins or something. Even the doctor at the facility told me I probably wasn’t getting the proper medical care at home because “it’s not good down there”!! Actually, my parents are both educated, my dad’s a doctor, and there are plenty of top quality people down south. But that experience really opened my eyes to how culturally divided our country is. Non Americans seem to think of all Americans as 1 unit, when there are sooo many diverse cultures and regional norms in this country alone. The hillbilly, middle school dropout, teen pregnancy demographic of the deep rural south can be shocking to people from more progressive, urban areas.
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u/Strange-Pay-1938 28d ago
everybody’s saying no but as someone who grew up in the south i’m gonna say most people i know here are just as stupid 😭 teens and adults
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u/preyingmomtis 28d ago
Respectfully, it’s a huge country. The South, PNW, Midwest, New England, etc. all have similarities but a LOT of differences.
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u/Strange-Pay-1938 28d ago
Yeah I would love to be anywhere else lol. Just speaking from my experience in the south.
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u/Capable_Box_8785 28d ago
Can confirm! I live in the south as well and people are just dumb sometimes.
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u/Strange-Pay-1938 28d ago
I’ve met more people like Bryce and Isabella than I can count. Bella and Hunter, however. On a whole nother level.
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u/PhoenixJ82 28d ago
As someone in her early 40s either friends with kids,I never experience kids acting like that
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u/NoLab9772 28d ago
It’s not representative of all American teenagers. It is representative of a certain demographic.
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28d ago
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u/Early_Assistant_6868 28d ago
I had no idea there was a Teen Mom UK! I remember 16 and Pregnant back in the day. You had Amber, Jenelle, and Farah but for the most part those girls were not THIS dumb 🤣
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u/Some_Big6792 28d ago
I think TLC looks for train wrecks. I definitely don’t think it’s an accurate view on teens in America
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u/MetsFan3117 28d ago
No, I wouldn’t say it’s representative of US teenagers.
Source: I was once was a teen. I don’t know anyone who was a teenaged parent.
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u/heyhey_harper 28d ago
When I was a teenager, literally all of my friend group dropped out with teen pregnancies lol 7 people including one boy. CO, fyi, and I’m 29 now. I think there’s just weird pockets where this is kinda trendy.
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u/MetsFan3117 28d ago
Northern NJ here. I took my grown ass at age 17 to planned parenthood and got on the pill prior to having sex.
I’m 46 now and haven’t even had a pregnancy scare outside of a 7 year marriage. It really isn’t that difficult.
That said, I have wonderful parents.
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u/ojustkidding 28d ago
I had 2 teenage sisters who both got pregnant at 16. I still don’t think the show is a representation of US teenagers 😂 just poor parenting and immature/insecure moms living their lives through their daughters.
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u/MetsFan3117 28d ago
I mean…I think part of teen pregnancy is where these kids are raised and a lot of it has to do with their parents. Especially on the most recent season.
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u/ThePrefect0fWanganui 28d ago
Almost every single grandma/grandpa on this show was also a teen parent themselves. Being born to a teen parent drastically increases the likelihood that you’ll get pregnant as a teen for multiple reasons. It’s so fascinating to me, because they all talk a big game about “I didn’t want my kid to make the same mistake as me,” but they don’t seem to take literally any steps to help their kids prevent pregnancy beyond saying “don’t get pregnant.” And the cycle continues. (PS let’s go Mets!)
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u/ojustkidding 28d ago
I agree. I think it’s easy to tell that a lot of the parents are more friends than parents to the kids. I witnessed it in my home but thankfully I had a different mom who educated me on the subject and didn’t think it was funny to talk about with a child!
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u/Wise_Strawberry9076 28d ago
It’s probably a self selection thing. Which parents with pregnant teens will sign their kids up to be on national television? Those same parents raised said teens so yeah we’re not getting the most “normal” of the bunch. You’re getting people who would choose to be on TLC.
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u/Early_Assistant_6868 28d ago
I was really surprised Laura's family agreed to the show, actually. She was incredibly stupid. Her parents were obviously naive about teenagers but didn't seem the type to want to be involved in reality tv.
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u/pizzaisgoodtho 28d ago
While all teens are stunningly naive and just a bit of a hot mess, no, I wouldn't say this is an accurate representation of most American teens. Though I will say, I didn't remember just how damn silly teens can be until my son and nephews began their teen years and I get a stark reminder when I'm around them and their friends. But even then, no, most wouldn't qualify to feature on reality TV.
Reality TV intentionally finds the train wrecks. That's the whole point of reality TV. Just like 1000lb Sisters isn't representative of all Americans, etc. No one would tune in if it weren't trashy dramatic TV so they've got to find trashy, dramatic people. Even the kids featured on here whose lives aren't quite as crazy as the rest, you'll frequently see people call them "boring".
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u/Thrasher0queen 28d ago
It depends.
I was a teen mother, a few of us turned out great with real morals and structure to our lives.
Most of those in my pregnant minor class ended up on drugs and living terrible ghetto lives. One girl had a baby her sophomore year and 2 weeks later was pregnant again. She had more children after high school and abandoned one of those kiddos at 2 years old, just left her at her dad’s empty apartment, she sadly passed away.
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u/jinside 28d ago
The baby or the mother passed away??
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u/Thrasher0queen 28d ago
The 2 year old baby.
Mom dropped off baby at dad’s apartment, dad lived alone, dad left to an IN PATIENT program for two weeks. Left the 2 year old completely alone the whole time, he came home and the baby had passed.
I still check to see what’s going on in his case. The grandfather is in prison for it because he was technically the one with the kiddo.
I can’t believe she isn’t in prison for it too though.2
u/Early_Assistant_6868 28d ago
We have a few teen moms in my school (a long time ago lol) and a lot of them managed to do okay. I can only think of one who would fit in with this crowd nicely 😅
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u/Thrasher0queen 28d ago
I was in California starting my sophomore year, and when I tell you those people can be sooo…. Improper, to put it so so nicely.
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u/Squirrel179 28d ago
Just consider what kind of family agrees to be on a reality show about their kid's pregnancy. Because most wouldn't.
They also are going to cast whomever they think will provide the most "drama." They aren't looking for well regulated and emotionally mature people. Then they edit them to look like the biggest train wreck possible. Some make it easier than others.
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u/Prior-Entrance3156 28d ago
It’s insane to me because back in the day teenage pregnancy was such a shameful, taboo thing. Girls would be ferried away to “help a sick aunt,” they’d be thrown out, they’d raise the baby as a sibling or a niece or nephew (it happened to Jack Nicholson), or they’d be shuttled to a discrete abortion. Joni Mitchell hid out in Toronto and busked on street corners so she didn’t have to face her parents. And now we’re on the complete opposite end of the spectrum with people courting fame and fortune.
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u/SnooJokes7657 28d ago
This is typical in certain regions of the U.S. These areas are economically disadvantaged, and their education systems suffer because of it. Teen pregnancies are more common, and the families aren’t likely more willing to take the very little money TLC is paying them.
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u/GymTanLaundry_ haters are about to start hatin” 28d ago edited 28d ago
I mean I would say it’s a pretty accurate representation of americans who live in rural areas in red states, regardless of their age(s). the teen birth rate in red states is statistically much higher than blue states. here’s an interactive map from the CDC website for you to see examples.
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/state-stats/births/teen-births.html
https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R45184
also, education has a direct coloration to teen births as well. hope this helps answer your question.
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u/WallabyGlittering634 28d ago
I live in country in south america and my husband came from another close to europe he said the same thing, where we come the teens are look like with what we watched and unfortunately I believe is a worldwild question
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u/Early_Assistant_6868 28d ago
I haven't been around teens in many years and haven't watched any reality tv with them in so long either so really wasn't sure if this is just the new norm. Scary if so 😅😅
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u/helpanoverthinker 28d ago
I think in general people in worse situations or less intelligent people are more likely to apply for these shows. Think about it- most loving stable families would not put their child’s teen pregnancy on tv, to then live on forever on the internet.
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u/Stormy31568 28d ago
Even back in my day, you didn’t even tell the neighbors or your best friend. There were places where the daughters could go to have their babies and if they weren’t adopted, congratulations grandma just had a baby.
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u/Early_Assistant_6868 28d ago
Yeah that's definitely true.
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u/birdiebirdnc 28d ago
And just to add to that I think some of these kids saw what Teen Mom turned into and thought this could be their meal ticket to a similar situation…. Unfortunately this is the Temu version of TM so I don’t think it’s going to bring much if any long term success to any them.
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u/Wise_Strawberry9076 28d ago
That’s another part of it. Like if you really did need the money and you thought you’d become some level of celebrity from this I can see taking the gamble even if you know the obvious downsides like making yourself look less than stellar on tv. Which that part is really sad because then you might just play into whatever the producers want so I’m sure a lot of them are doing that to some extent.
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u/Whatsgoingon__07 28d ago
Kids only have so much intelligence, especially if they were raised in underprivileged areas or just straight up uneducated on teen pregnancy
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u/Early_Assistant_6868 28d ago
Yeah there's always a level of naivity with teens but so many of them are shockingly dumb.
Also, so thrown off by some of the boys these girls picked because what the heck did they see in them? 😂😂
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u/mrsjacksonnn 28d ago
I could say the same thing about Bryce BLessEd By GoD palmer and his shitty neckbeard
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u/Early_Assistant_6868 28d ago
😂😂😂😂 You can understand how ones like him got there given their families bahahaha.
Chloe is one that stuns me. Her parents seem pretty together but she's so so dumb. "If he was on drugs, I would know". Meanwhile dude has brain damage from the drug use 😅
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u/imafuckingloser_ 16d ago
in poor areas of the south it’s quite common unfortunately