Source: Strong Families Blog
May is National Teen Pregnancy Prevention month, which means that throughout the month you can expect to see campaigns and coverage dedicated pretty much exclusively to telling you how young women who are mothers are ruining America for all of us. But we’re not into the shaming of young mothers here, and we are very happy to give you a good dose of dignity for young mamas.And what better way to do so than by giving some super fierce young mothers Natasha Vianna and Marylouise Kuti-Schubert the chance to speak for themselves?
The shame we felt from our families, our friends, healthcare providers, school staff, our community, and our peers deeply affected our internal sense of purpose in the world. We were young women working to transition into adulthood while our environment refused to see us as anything more than “children having children.” Our passion and dedication to grow and be better mothers, better women, and better people were not the goals our society would accept.
The barriers that prevented us from defining and achieving our own successes often came from these negative environments and from society’s constant stigmatization of what my family was suppose to look like and how our dreams didn’t fit into the cultural norm. Our roles as mamas were disrespected.
Check out their whole piece here, and make sure to go through the #NoTeenShame hashtag for more.
Verónica is so grateful for the voices of fierce young mamas!
