'Teen Mom' Re-Casting

An open letter to MTV.

To whom it may concern,

Please, I beg you, please decide on more responsible and mature young women to be the faces of the  young moms of America when you do the casting for the next 'Teen Mom'. Please choose ones that aren't using their young children for their 'fifteen minutes' of fame. For example, instead of video footage of fist fights and screaming matches, how about what the financial responsibility of having a child is? How about showing what hundreds of young women who are 'mommy' do? They tuck away whatever plans they had of being young and free and grab on to their new reality; that they are responsible for another life. For most young moms, that translated into diaper changing every hour, colic soothing at three a.m., spit up cleaning starting about fifteen minutes after baby is done eating, laundry washing every other day, bottle washing after every feeding, the precious stuffed toy locating, bath time giving, cuddling until their little angel goes to sleep and repeating this cycle every day with roughly two hour intervals of sleep/study/shower time. They entrust the small bundles of their hearts to other's care while they work and in many cases, go to school. Instead of focusing on Amber's latest addition to her rap sheet or Janelle's seemingly non-existent interest in the well-being of her child, can you please focus on a young woman who isn't doing the show for front cover photo shoots and the salary?

Your reasoning behind this show is excellent. Being a mom is mind numbing and physically exhausting. It is even harder when the mom is not more then a child herself. Young girls (and guys) need to know that becoming a parent is a very real possibility if they are engaging in sexual intercourse. They need to know what being a parent looks like. It is not fun. It is not cute. Those adorable pictures of cooing, smiling infants are a sham. They are only cute, cuddly and completely clean for seconds. On top of mommy reality, it seems that this course of action has been effective. The percentage of teen pregnancies and births have dropped to the single digits in the last few years.

However, 'Teen Mom' is a two edged sword. On one side, you have the reasoning behind 'Teen Mom'; on the other, you have the perceptions about young moms it pervades. There are hundreds, if not thousands of young moms in the United States of America, and I am pretty sure almost all of them have a story to tell about a derogatory or dismissive comment or sneer made about them or about their child because mom is young. Media influences society. Your show, 'Teen Mom', has proved that. Please realize that the behaviors of the girls you portray on 'Teen Mom' creates a sometimes pessimistic view of all young moms and their maturity level. Being a mom is hard enough before adding on the feeling like you are fighting against the whole world.

Sincerely,

Ashley
a young mom