Portrayal of Teenage Pregnancy in Hollywood Movies: Precious, the Pregnancy Project and Juno

The visibility of teenage pregnancy has become a call for concern though it’s not a new issue. Many more young girls are getting pregnant and the reaction to the phenomenon is gradually changing and the girls getting more support and encouragement to move on with their lives from family, friends and outsiders thereby killing stereotypes and exposing challenges. The main aim of this research is to look at the portrayals of teenage pregnancy in Hollywood movies from 2007- 2015 with objectives to find out the challenges before, during and after pregnancy. Three movies (Juno, Precious and the Pregnancy Project) selected from 15 other Hollywood movies on teenage pregnancy will be the focus of the study. A feminist media approach is used for this study to explain reasons why some pregnant teens face problems which include patriarchy, oppression, choices, stereotypes and inequality. Textual analysis was used to collect primary data to understand the content and better explain the messages contained in the three movies (Juno, Precious and the Pregnancy Project) used for the research. Secondary data was collected from books, e-books, online journals and magazines and newspapers to find previous literature related to the topic and to support findings found in the movies used for the study. Stereotypes, patriarchy, oppression and choices are discovered to be issues that serve as both problems and solutions in all three movies (Juno, Precious and the Pregnancy Project).Precious, Juno and Gaby all face various stereotypes and only Juno of all three girls freely makes her choices on her life and her baby easily with family support. Gaby (the Pregnancy Project) and Precious (Precious) live in patriarchal societies where they are oppressed and can hardly make decisions. Challenges that run across the movies include regret, frustration, emotions, labor pains, immaturity, stereotypes, disappointment and lack of confidence among others. These findings will help in better understanding of portrayals of teenage pregnancy in movies and the challenges faced by young pregnant teenagers, before, during and after pregnancy. It will also help to find out the importance and consequences of the content of these movies on its audience and the impact it has on their lives. Keywords: Teenage Pregnancy, challenges, portray, feminist ideologies, stereotypes, Hollywood movies