"It is only females who can give the gift of life, carrying a baby and giving birth empowers females"

A female carrying a human inside her womb for 9 month should not be judged in a negative way or be seen and referred to as an “other”, for it is only females who can give the gift of life. Carrying a baby and giving birth empowers females, no matter what the age of the mother might be. It is for once a connection that 2 women can share no matter the age, because for once they share an unconditional love with a person, who may have or may have not been planned to come into this world. But if the case may have been that they were not planned, I’m sure neither mother would trade it for the world after seeing such an innocent precious face. But then reality hits and the judgmental thoughts and comments that people utter out, because even if you’re happy with the way things turned out they’re not because you’re not old enough to experience the breathtaking feelings that come along with mother hood.

When it comes to being judgmental friends, family, and society are all guilty of such behavior, especially when it involves adding to the human race, and the mother happens to be less than twenty. Either way it is an insult to expecting young mothers to be viewed as an outcast, an “other” or even be classified as a disappointment to society, due to their biology.

Friends, family, and society have always been so opinionated and judgmental of teen parenthood, but yet have always viewed abortion as an inhumane act. It’s as if there is no right to the situation, Even though it has been proven that half of no marital births happen to teens, and even though a large percent of teen mothers cost tax payers millions of dollars due to them being on welfare. There should always be the benefit of the doubt because not everyone goes down the same road. Also that another big issue that society is concerned about is that teen mothers lack of possible education experience because might miss out on because 49 %of teen mothers don’t receive high school diplomas and  2%of teen mothers  graduate from 4 college. But not ever case is like that because many times an infant doesn’t only bring joy and happiness into someone’s life but also motivation to become a better person.

Not in every situation does a teen mother get dragged down and becomes part of a statistic. In my case I became an “other” at seventeen when I became pregnant and I gave birth to my daughter Aniyah at the age eighteen. I still graduated high school, and went on to college as a pregnant freshman. I must admit being a pregnant college student was one of the hardest things I have experienced to this day.  It was hard enough having to deal with the reactions my family and friends had when they found out, and then having to come to school with a big belly that was constantly getting stared at throughout the day just topped it off. Not to mention  all the awkwardly  stares I would get from people who I knew wondered “is she just fat, or is she pregnant?” and all the questions that were constantly asked by class mates like “How much time are you planning on taking off after?” and “When are you thinking of coming back?”. Even though I really wanted to come back to school, and had mentally told myself over and over again that I was coming back, the reality was that deep down, I really wasn’t even sure if I would come back. Luckily, it was like it was meant to for me to come back, because I had my Aniyah over spring break, started school a week later, and I’m proud to say that I’ve been in school ever since.