Holy babies having babies!

I'm sure most of you have heard this story by now. If you haven't, basically 17 16 year old girls in the same town are pregnant - on purpose. They made some sort of pact to get pregnant and raise their babies together.

In the article, it mentions movies (like Knocked Up and Juno) as potentially having an influence on this decision. I find that ridiculous. I didn't think Knocked Up glorified teen pregnancy at all. For one, she was an adult, with a job. Two, it's a movie. A MOVIE. Are we giving these kids enough credit?

Maybe we are though. I can't wrap my mind around wanting to have a baby at 16. Nothing about it seemed fun/exciting/worth it to me.

I'm forced to wonder if it's the "small town" mentality. I hate to group small towns together like this, but in a lot of cases it's true. Are they crying out for attention or love? Are they lonely? I'd love to know what the thought process was behind this.

Also in the article they mention sex education. Sex education wouldn't have helped here. They knew what they were doing - passing out condoms wouldn't have helped. They simply wouldn't have used them. Sounds to me like they HAD sex education - maybe just not the "right" kind.

Is it their socio-economic status? It's a "poor" fishing town. Boredom? Inadequate education? Poor parenting?

Everyone is so caught up in finding who is to "blame" when we should be focusing on these girls. Their mental status, their health and the future of their babies. Talk to THEM to try to figure out what's going on. Stop speculating (yes, I'm guilty of that).