“Pregnancy Project” a great reminder that no one has to be a statistic

Pregnancy+Project+a+great+reminder+that+no+one+has+to+be+a+statistic

By: Alex Vickery, Editor

This shockingly true story made headlines across the world last year. It’s the story of a 17-year-old senior from Washington, named Gaby Rodriguez, who faked a pregnancy. That’s right: she pretended to be a pregnant teenager. But she didn’t just do this for kicks. Rodriguez turned it into a social experiment, which is the basis of her newly released memoir, The Pregnancy Project.

Rodriguez starts off the book by explaining what a senior project is. During every junior’s year, Toppenish High School asks each student how they want to make a mark before they leave for college. Most students chose a simple topic, like learning how to knit, but Rodriguez was determined to truly leave a mark. Because her mother was a teen mom, Rodriguez was told her whole life that she was just going to become another statistic and end up the same way, even though she was extremely smart and abstinent. Rodriguez decided to make her senior project about overcoming stereotypes. Just because someone’s mother is a teen mom, doesn’t mean he or she has to become a teen parent. Just because someone is the typical jock doesn’t mean he or she can’t get good grades.

Rodriguez’s project started off on a rocky start: she had to go through a lot to get the project approved and had to do a lot of convincing to get close friends and family to help her. Her project even had to be approved by the superintendent. Rodriguez did a good job of telling the lengths she had to go to get her project approved. The only people who knew about her experiment were her mom, boyfriend, best friend and the principal. Even her siblings didn’t know, but Rodriguez knew the experiment would only work if she got honest reactions. She and her best friend recorded things they heard people saying about Rodriguez and planned to use them in speech in which she would reveal her pregnancy. The comments hurt and Rodriguez and her boyfriend were judged, but this was all just part of Rodriguez’s plan for her big reveal.

When Rodriguez told the entire school at an assembly, so many people were inspired. This part of the memoir is touching because of how she explains the reactions people had. The media went crazy and Rodriguez did a countless number of interviews and was even on The Today Show. She got her own book deal, which turned into The Pregnant Project.

Overall, the book isn’t that well written, but it is a memoir from a now 18-year-old girl and given her age, it’s a good read for teenagers. The book itself is a great reminder that no one has to become a statistic. Anyone can do whatever he or she want to achieve in life and there is no need to judge a book by its cover.