The Pregnancy Project

This is the memoir of Gabby Rodriquez a teen who faked a pregnancy as a social experiment for her senior project. This was not usually something I would be interested in but I took a chance thinking it would be interesting and it was a book that I couldn't put down. I also learned a lot about teen pregnancy too.
  Gabby is latino which is a ethnic group that has one of the highest rates of becoming teen moms and dropping out of school. Gaby's mom dropped out in 8th grade because she became pregnant. The cycle was repeated in her other siblings which is where she initially got her idea from in the first place. She had to keep her fake belly a secret and get it approved by the school to do the project so that results wouldn't be jeopardized. Only a select few of teachers, friends, and family knew about it. She wanted to know how the stereotypes of being a teen mom affected everyone involved. Her boyfriend was in on the secret too. Even her boyfriend received some negative stereotypes. He was harassed almost on a daily basis about how he ruined his life and the bad decisions he made. She took parenting classes, visited clinics to find out what a mother goes through, and even watched 16 and pregnant for research.
    After months of pretending she finally revealed to her high school that it was all and experiment. She received a very rapid, negative and positive response. A lot of people were glad, some were hurt, felt lied too, but she also received some very negative response as well. In her presentation she brought up a lot of statistics and presented the negative comments people said about her. She created a lot of media attention.  She was on the Today Show, published a book, and even has her own Lifetime movie. She graduated from high school in the top 5% of her class and is successful today.