Home / Reviews / Toppenish grad?s ?Pregnancy Project? details stereotyping of teenage moms
February 6, 2012
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Hannah Souers
If a high school student gets good grades they are classified as a nerd, dork or geek.
However, if the same student can also successfully play a sport, they become a jock.
Suppose that same student also dresses a specific way that indicates they are wealthy; they then become a prep.
Although high schools differ across the country, they all share a common characteristic: stereotyping.
Gaby Rodriguez, a 2011 graduate from Toppenish High School, made national news when she gave up her senior year in dedication to her senior project.
When the average student would complete a job-shadow or volunteer at a local charity, she performed an unorthodox social experiment.
Rodriguez describes in her book ?The Pregnancy Project? her interest in stereotypes in high school. Every school has them: the jocks, the nerds and everything in between.
But here was the twist: Rodriguez wanted to know if she would be treated differently if word were to get around school that she was pregnant.
Before the project, Rodriguez was considered among her peers and teachers as the successful child of her family. She was in the top 5 percent of her class as well as in the ASB leadership school group.
Rodriguez?s home life consisted of a single mother and seven older siblings, all of whom became a parent at or before the age of 19.
Naturally, she didn?t actually become pregnant to perform the experiment, but wore a fake ?bump? for most of her senior year. The only people who knew the truth were her principal, the superintendent, her mother, her oldest sister and her boyfriend.
Over the six month experiment, Rodriguez had the people in on the secret record how her classmates, teachers and siblings treated her upon finding out about the ?pregnancy.?
Rodriguez discovered that when she announced her ?pregnancy,? none of her peers seemed surprised that she was following in her family?s footsteps. After the initial shock, her peers seemed to forget that she was in the top of her class and only looked at her family?s history of teen pregnancies.
One quote she recorded from an anonymous student said: ?Her family won?t make a big deal out of this because they?re used to teen moms.?
Another quote Gaby recorded: ?Her attitude is changing, and it might be because of the baby, or she was always this annoying and I never realized it??
In April 2011, just before prom,
Rodriguez revealed to the entire staff and student body of Toppenish High School that her pregnancy was fake. At the presentation, Rodriguez read off scornful comments from students about her and then pulled out the fake stomach that her mom had made six months earlier.
Rodriguez?s results showed that despite her success in school, her peers, teachers, and family still treated her as if she had no future because of the ?baby.?
Her moral: you can rise above stereotypes placed on you. There is no reason why you have to become pregnant, do drugs or drink because your parents did.
Rodriguez is currently attending college; she is the first in her family to do so. Although she has been dating her boyfriend since 2008, Rodriguez has never been pregnant, further providing evidence against stereotypes.
?The Pregnancy Project? hit the shelves in January and contains just over 200 pages. The book is a very easy read and quickly captivates the reader into the details behind Rodriguez?s senior project that cannot be found in her Lifetime movie, nor in the interviews Rodriguez has given since the project.
I would highly recommend this book for any student, regardless of how your school experience has been treating you. Although the book is directed at high school students, junior high and middle school students can also relate to Rodriguez?s story.
?The Pregnancy Project? isn?t just for teenage moms, but for any teenager, female or male, who feels stuck in a stereotype situation.
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* Hannah Souers is a senior at West Valley High School and a member of Yakima Herald-Republic?s Unleashed journalism program for high school students.
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