Sister Destee.....My stance on this issue has nothing to do with "self-righteousness."
It has to do with our children having babies before they are mentally, emotionally, financially, and sometimes, even physically mature enough to create and nurture another human life.
As a teen mother yourself, you personally know the many hardships which accompany being a young single mother. And, yes, thank God, you had the help and support of your mother so that you could finish high school, attend college, etc...
But, THIS young woman, with or without her mother's help won't have the same hardships you had or other pregnant teens have. THIS young woman is making beau-coup money as a fashion model. She can afford adequate pre-natal care and adequate child care once the baby is delivered. THIS young woman won't need WIC or food stamps to feed her baby. THIS young woman won't have to stress about money for pampers for her baby's butt or Amoxicillin when it gets sick.
As I said before, THIS young woman is really only TECHNICALLY a "teenager." ---She is 19, but she is out of school and is, legally, an ADULT. So, HER situation is not the same as yours was nor the same as most teens of today.
And, also as I said before, I don't believe pregnant teens should be shunned/ostracized. Yes, making a mistake and getting caught-up doing what others have done is not the issue. "To err is human."
But I do believe that, as a people, we need to make a distinction between "making A mistake" and REPEATED behavior....as a people, we need to talk to our young girls AND boys about sex and babies.
Too many of our young children are anesthetized to the enormity of child-birth. Too many of them think/feel that it's no big deal to get pregnant or to have baby-after-baby-after-baby.
So, for some of our youth, to see a young woman like THIS one who is single and pregnant but who is making money and whose life is not hampered by her pregnancy, IMO, doesn't send a healthy message to our young girls. --The "Shamikas" and "Ieshas" and "Lolas" on tha Block aint got it like THIS young woman got it.
MY opinion on this issue speaks to the bigger picture of the Black family unit and all our many households of single mothers and all our many 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17 year old girls having babies.
Now, the article asked the question: "CAN A PREGNANT TEEN BE A ROLE MODEL?" So, I wondered how teenagers and parents feel about that question.
And thank you for your replies; but YOUR position on it is just another opinion, not a declaration.
Twenty years ago, a song said, "We must be crazy to let our babies have babies..."
So, I wondered if any teenagers and parents out there regarded a pregnant teenager as a "role model."