I think it’s important for other teens to see the reality of being a teen mom. For those girls who want to have a child to keep a boyfriend or keep a child to get their parents’ pissed off, it’s not what it seems. Babies are not dolls that you can put aside when you are tired and then come back to them in a week. They are not cute little children that you can just push around in a stroller and say “Look he’s wearing brand name clothes.”

Having a child is a life long thing you are going into, you are going into the situation without any knowledge of what the reality is going to be. You are walking into it with not enough experience under your belt. You are going into it with so many different hopes and fantasies, things that you have heard, but it’s a totally different ball game once you are in it.

My advice is: Don’t have a child at this age, it’s hard. I love my son I would move heaven or hell for him, but if I could have held off and have the exact same child even five years down the line, I would have. I would have liked to experience what being a teenager is like. I would have liked to experience going to my prom. I would have liked to have my body mature so that I wouldn’t have had such a drastic change. I would have liked to know what else is out there. I would have liked things to go differently, but it’s the road that I went down. I don’t have regrets, but I do acknowledge that it wasn’t the right time and I don’t think it’s the right time for anyone our age. There are so many things against us.