Readers Fired Up By Teen-Pregnancy Issue | Newsweek Culture

SOCIETY
Teen Pregnancy, Hollywood Style
Sarah Kliff 7/23/2008 12:00:00 AM
It could have been Immaculate Conception. In the premiere episode of the new drama "The Secret Life of the American Teenager," 15-year-old Amy comes home from band practice and is shocked--the pregnancy test is positive! That two-second tryst at band camp, as she describes it to her friends, "was definitely not like what you see in the movies." They share the same confusion: how did a good girl end up in this situation? The obvious answer (Amy had unprotected sex) never quite surfaces; it's brushed off in a whirlwind of mystification. By the end of the episode, band-camp guy has taken a backseat to Amy's new love interest. As the plot pushes forward, it never once looks back at whether Amy considered contraceptives or talked to her parents about condoms. Amy is pregnant, and that is where this story starts.
TEEN PREGNANCY
Baby 101
Sarah Kliff 7/12/2008 12:00:00 AM
When OK! Magazine announced 16-year-old Nickelodeon star Jamie Lynn Spears' pregnancy in December 2007, it was the best-selling issue since the magazine's American debut in 2005. "We knew it was a very big story, but it took us a little bit by surprise just how big the story became," says Rob Shuter, OK!'s executive editor. "The nightly news was talking about it."
CULTURE
Baby Bucks
6/19/2008 12:00:00 AM
In a climate where everything from box office hits to traffic stops makes headlines in blogs, newspapers and celebrity weeklies, it comes as no surprise that the more substantial life events of an A-lister — say, the birth of a baby — constitutes news.
CULTURE
Nickelodeon’s Dilemma
Matthew Philips 12/20/2007 12:00:00 AM
It was a tale made in tabloid heaven: Britney Spears's kid sister, star of the cable TV tween hit "Zoey 101," was pregnant at the age of 16! She was paid to tell the world in OK! Magazine. And her mom's book on parenting was suddenly delayed! While the tabs and the celebrity blogs gave thanks to the news gods, the story had a rather different impact in the executive suites at Viacom's Nickelodeon, which airs Jamie Lynn Spears's wildly popular show. After all, the star's pregnancy wasn't exactly in keeping with the program's squeaky-clean high-school fare. Would the suits try to spin her situation into a plot line? Fire her? Or hunker down and try to ride out the storm?
Thanks, Jamie Lynn
Kathleen Deveny 12/19/2007 12:00:00 AM
When I saw the New York Post on my breakfast table this morning, I practically threw my body on top of it. There, across from my sleepy seven-year-old daughter, was a smiling picture of her favorite TV actress, Jamie Lynn Spears, star of "Zoey 101." On the show, Jamie Lynn is a spunky student at the beautiful Pacific Coast Academy, a boarding school where drugs don't exist and kids do their homework without ever being asked. In real life, Jamie Lynn is 16 years old and three months pregnant.
The Other Ms. Spears
Sarah Kliff 10/2/2007 12:00:00 AM
Jamie Lynn Spears wants to be known as a great actress—no drama, antics or tabloids involved. "I just want to have a successful career," she says. "Not a crazy one." While her older sister Britney has been a cottage industry of celebrity gossip lately (she lost custody of her kids Monday), Jamie Lynn has been focusing on her professional aspirations.