16 & Pregnant - Season 2

The stories that made up the second season of 16 and Pregnant didn't capture me in the same way the select few season one episode I saw did. Nor did they engage me in the manner that the excellent Teen Mom spin-off did. I'm not completely sure on this, but the concept of this series seemed designed to only run for one or two seasons. The stories told this go round are just too similar to one another and to the stories from last year. Every girl here is either a stupid spoiled brat who thinks that having a baby will not change their lives in the slightest (which makes their struggling with their babies all the more satisfying) or the girls have extremely douchebaggy boyfriends/baby fathers. In most cases the girls seem to be a combination of the two types.

One of the few interesting twists on the formula, was with a girl who was impregnated by her rebound boyfriend and really wanted to get back together with her first boyfriend. But it turns out that her old boyfriend is the douchebag type that most of these girls end up with and the boyfriend she's trying to ditch is the perfect idealistic one that most teenage boys should aspire to be. Its a shame that the rest of the stories couldn't live up to that one. I also can't help but shake this disturbing feeling that some of these girls got pregnant for the sole purpose of being on this show. It's a creepy thought, but some teens now-a-days are dumb enough to do something like that. Anyway, there's been rumors that a second season of Teen Mom is one the way, but it hasn't been noted if its going to follow the same girls from the first season or follow the girls introduced in this show. I hope its the former, cause most of these girls, as was the season as a whole, are just not that interesting to follow up on.

Teen Mom - Season 1

One show I enjoyed last year was MTV's 16 and Pregnant, a documentary series that followed the lives of several girls who were...well, sixteen and pregnant. Despite not being in the target gender demographic, I was intrigued by the hardships that the girls were going through and was shocked that MTV didn't try to sugarcoat any of it and instead offered the cold hard truth about teenage pregnancies. Teen Mom is the follow-up series, focus on who I assume were the four most popular girls: Maci, Amber, Catelynn and Farrah. The series gives us a continued look into the lives of these now-teen parents and the events are narrated by each girl first hand as they must balance their personal life while taking care of their new baby.

Out the four girls, the most interesting one is Catelynn, who gave her baby up for adoption. At first I wasn't too invested in her and her boyfriend Tyler because they didn't have a child with them. But how the adoption effects them is truly an engaging story. This was clearly a difficult choice for them, and they are very supportive of each other as they deal with the pain of not having their baby in their lives. Their parents are not as supportive as Tyler’s dad refuses to forgive his son for putting Carly up for adoption and the same goes for Catelynn's mom. Maci and Amber are similar girls as their stories largely deal with the stress that their boyfriends give them and the difficulties that they have trying to continue their education. Both girls try to work things out with their boyfriends for the sake of their children with varying results. Farrah is, without a doubt, the worst of the girls. She's the only one of the group that doesn't have a significant other and as a result spends most of her time dating and trying to keep her social life exactly the same as was before she got pregnant. Her mother is overbearing as hell, but she basically has put of with a spoiled brat as she dumps her child on her to go out with her friends. Farrah does get her priorities straight by the end of her story, but its quite an annoying tale to watch.

Like 16 and Pregnant, Teen Mom doesn’t sugar-coat the reality of being a mother. It shows each girl rising to the challenge of having to grow up before they are ready, and there were some cringe-worthy moments that demonstrated certain levels of immaturity...mostly coming from Farrah. The show's never pretty, it’s just an intriguing look into the life of four teenage girls, who will have to learn to take care of a new baby. The seemingly genuine stories and situations make for a both captivating and entertaining look into life-after teenage pregnancy. 16 and Pregnant is coming back for a second season and it looks be just as captivating as this was.