Teen mothers are all the rage

The Spears family has done it again. They have topped themselves on the ridiculous scale, and this time, Britney didn’t even have anything to do with it.

I am, of course, referring to the rumor that Britney’s younger sister, Jamie Lynn, who at the age of 17 gave birth to her first child, has reached out to Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s pregnant teenage daughter, Bristol. Looks like Sarah Palin’s ultra-conservative, abstinence-only education policies haven’t worked on little Bristol.

Jamie Lynn reportedly bought Bristol $60 worth of pink burp clothes from Petit Tresor. What possessed the kinda-famous Nickelodeon “star” to reach out to little Palin? My guess is publicity, but maybe Jamie Lynn is smarter and more politically involved than we all thought. (And maybe pigs can actually fly!)

This juicy little tidbit of celebrity/political/pop culture gossip hints at an underlying theme seen recently in the entertainment industry. Lately, films featuring women and girls with undesirable pregnancies, as seen in “Knocked Up,” “Juno” and “Waitress,” have been popular. They portray women making the most of unwanted and unexpected pregnancies and coming out all right in the end.

As the lines between politics and pop culture continue to blur (see Barack Obama’s Us Weekly interviews and Glamour’s recent interviews with both candidates), we see a convergence of ideas and controversies. Before little Palin, Jamie Lynn was America’s favorite teen mom. Little Palin’s pregnancy has not hurt her mom’s political image at all. For an uber-socially conservative woman who advocates abstinence-only education and is so pro-life she doesn’t even support abortion in cases of rape or incest, the revelation of her daughter’s pregnancy has only seemed to make Sarah Palin more popular, just like Jamie Lynn’s pregnancy made her more famous. Coincidence?

Society has come to almost accept teenage pregnancy, and that is reflected in the entertainment industry. “Juno” received financial backing even though it explicitly showed its title character toying with the idea of abortion. It went on to be a huge success, eventually receiving nominations for Best Picture and Best Actress at the Oscars. While we still have a long way to go, it seems to me that with the success of these films and the fact that young women and their families only become more famous after their secrets are revealed, we are getting there, little by little, and the entertainment industry is reflecting that growth.