Teen Pregnancy Today

Shantell Ingram

IB LA, Period 2

2/7/13

Written task 1

Word Count: Rationale- 217, Editorial- 947

Rationale- I am writing an editorial as a teenager that has been witnessing teen pregnancy around my high school and in the community. I am giving advice to other teenage girls in a teen magazine called Seventeen Magazine. Teen pregnancy has increased over time, and giving possible solutions to prevent teen pregnancy. Teachers, peers, and parents have slowly begun to look down upon girls that happen to get pregnant. It seems like teen pregnancy is a "trend" today, and the trend needs to be broken. They've start to believe that there isn't a great chance for them either graduating on time, or even graduating at all in some cases. In the article, I am going to be to influence the safety and protection of teens having sex and the arguments that are taken because of pregnancy. There has been a huge controversy about teens having sex, portrayed greatly through media and articles in magazines, on the internet, and even just around school. I will be addressing the language and conflict around the situation of teen pregnancy, all the while telling about how I see the situation and the language involved around it. I will also be addressing how the situation is played as a culture related problem, when is simply the lack of communication and thorough information.

You would have never thought that with time improving birth control methods and the strength of condoms would be such a huge subject that has been a huge downfall for teenage girls not only in the U.S, but also around the world. Today, teen pregnancy seems more like a trend than something that should actually be looked upon as a life changing situation. I myself have seen girls I would have never thought to be the ones walking around pregnant. Every teenage girl wants attention, and seeing that the ones getting pregnant have been the ones getting the most attention, they feel they have to do the same just to be noticed. They just don't get the attention isn't because of a good cause. It's crazy because girls the age of 14 have been getting pregnant, and in some cases even a younger age. Babies were having babies, and it's not right at all. Babies shouldn't be taking care of a baby, that's not how it's supposed to go down.

Young girls and boys have been exposed to sex at the age of 12 in a program known as FLASH. FLASH gives information about sex, diseases brought along with sex and how to be protected from sexual transmitted diseases and pregnancy. I myself have just forgotten about what was taught in FLASH, and other girls most obviously have as well. Even though this program is being brought to their attention, not all young teens are smart enough to actually think that they can be the victims of any of this. Pregnancy isn't due to the lack of teenagers knowing about what could actually happen when you have unprotected sex, but the lack of thorough knowledge about the topic of trend today; sex. It's as if all the information was just wiped out of our minds. Although this information that is taught during the FLASH course is understandable and