TV series and PSAs suddenly swollen with knocked up teens

How's this for Hollywood and Madison Avenue being out of sync with "real" America: There's a gusher of TV programs and PSAs about teen pregnancy just as the rate of pregnant youngsters in the U.S. increased for the first time in two decades. Before anybody blames the entertainment for causing hormone-crazed teens to do what hormone-crazed teens are wont to do, let's note that we're in a post-Juno phase where being in-the-family-way isn't all songwriting and Slushees. MTV's hit reality series 16 and Pregnant, with a new season launching next month, shines a harsh light on life as a knocked-up high schooler, and a multi-media PSA campaign from Serve Marketing in Milwaukee likens it to being stuck in an 18-year-long horror flick. Lifetime's The Pregnancy Pact, which aired over the weekend and broke viewership records for ad-supported cable in female demos, shows what happens when conservative politics gets in the way of sex ed. (Hint: baby boom!) In Fox's fan and critical favorite, Glee, head cheerleader Quinn got kicked out of her house and off her It Girl throne when she revealed her delicate condition. There are slightly glossier versions of teen motherhood and its fallout in The Secret Life of an American Teenager, an ABC Family hit returning this summer, and the CW's new midseason series, Life Unexpected. But even those scripted series have their share of sturm und drang. It's compelling stuff, all right, but I can't imagine it would compel any teens to want to join that club.

— Posted by T.L. Stanley