The short-story novel The Pregnancy Project by Gaby Rodriguez with Jenna Glatzer is based on a true story about how Rodriguez experienced alienation. For people in her family and community, it is stereotypical to look down upon teen mothers. After she experiments with being pregnant, she proves a life lesson to not only her community, but also to herself.

The Pregnancy Project is about a girl named Gaby Rodriguez who grew up thinking that pregnancy in junior high or high school was normal due to her family’s traditions. Her mother was a teen mom, with eight different pregnancies, and her older sister was, also. Rodriguez thought that if she did not live up to her family’s expectations, she would have been looked down upon for breaking her family’s “tradition.”

With the knowledge and blessing of her mother, boyfriend and senior project committee, she faked being pregnant in order to better understand the stigma and societal reaction to teen mothers. Rodriguez learned more about herself, her family, her school and society as a whole.  Hiding her fake pregnancy from her siblings and boyfriend’s parents only showed their true faith in Rodriguez. Her family was emotionally unstable and was in disbelief that their daughter and sister would ever become pregnant.

Rodriguez liked to believe that her mother and sister would have been supportive from the very beginning since they went through the same dramatic event. Their reaction was the complete opposite. Most people would whisper around the school, “She brought this upon herself,” but in reality, she was showing that the pregnant teens are shown to be a negative stereotype instead of making their action a positive. Being pro-life is not a bad thing.

Commonly, teen mothers are distressed with embarrassment and guilt. Growing up, many are taught to never judge a book by it’s cover. There is always a background story to every incident, so judging the soon-to-be mother is a major flaw of society today. You will never know if the female was raped, if the pregnancy was planned, or even unplanned. Either way, it is a justified belief to support and to treat the woman how she deserves. With complete respect.

As the future becomes the present, young relationships are occurring more frequently. Sometimes couples want to have children, and pregnancies are starting to become more planned. Teen pregnancies are such a controversial topic; it was a clever thought by Rodriguez to take all the blame to prove a point to not only herself or her family, but also to her community.