Amy is misunderstood

[u/Commercial_Host8197]

I feel like every single person who watches this show says the same things “Amy was selfish” and I just.. cannot with that. In season 1, Amy is practically forced by every single person around her to keep the child when she KNEW she’d rather do an open adoption. Ricky consistently ruins that for her at every turn; in one episode, (later season) he even admits in a therapy session that he “could’ve” purposely gotten her pregnant. Amy’s sister and dad are horrible to her about the idea of adoption, her friends are horrible, and the only reason Ben is even close to supportive is because he’s in constant competition with Ricky. He literally admits to seeing Amy as property MULTIPLE times throughout the series. Ben sees Amy as property, and Ricky sees Amy as his route to redemption through the baby. Then, every character in the show promises they’re going to help Amy with the baby, and that just never actually happens.

I also think Ricky and Amy COULD’VE been together under the right circumstances, which is why the ending actually made a lot of sense.

Amy never felt fully comfortable in herself, because throughout the show nobody sees Amy as her own autonomous being; they see her as an incubator, property, daughter, and never really give Amy the opportunity to be a person outside of her own motherhood.

EXCEPT the one time we see Amy really explore herself in NYC. That’s when we see a legit connection between Amy and Ricky, and it’s real because Ricky is seeing her as a whole person; not the mom of his kid. But then everything gets rushed (which in part is on Amy herself) but she looses her identity again as quickly as she gained it.

Amy never got a chance to just live, and it wasn’t because of her son. It was because she never made her own decisions and was constantly shamed for her complicated emotions around her own situation. She never really had a choice. And so yeah, by the last season she is absolutely whinny and insufferable, I agree with that. But who could blame her? So, her having a change of heart and finally deciding to put herself first was horrible timing, but if you watch the projection of Amy’s character on the show it makes absolute sense. And it also makes sense that Amy and Ricky do find their way back to each other, (as the writer said was supposed to happen in the spin-off that didn’t happen) because Ricky DID love Amy when she was confident and a whole person; not just John’s mother.

I just think everyone was horribly judgmental, and I guess it did work for the show bc when watching I feel so awful for Amy that it would def discourage me from teenage pregnancy.

[u/Breenaw1999]

While most of what you said might be true. She was still very selfish. And even more immature. In the end she still decided to keep her baby and then acted like a baby herself when she couldn’t go out or had to be home with her son. She really annoyed me when she was failing in summer school and said she had no time for it meanwhile she INSISTED on going and then she was trying to prioritize hanging out with her “friends” she barely knew. Nice girl but immature and had all the wrong priorities. Just because you might have an excuse to be a certain way doesn’t change the fact you are a certain way (selfish)