Happy Birthday, PushBack!

Today marks the one year anniversary of our first blog post! I thought we’d celebrate with a little retrospective of where we’ve been.

By my count, we’ve had 92 posts by 16 different authors, including 12 current or former young parents. Our bloggers come from Massachusetts, Ohio, Illinois, North Dakota, Florida, Maryland, and New York — as well as the United Kingdom and South Africa!

We started the blog on last year’s National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy with a reminder the teen pregnancy prevention doesn’t need to be about scare tactics or demonizing young parents.  I truly believe this, and I’ve tried to keep it in mind throughout the year.  In fact, we’ve had a few posts dissecting less-than-fabulous prevention campaigns, like that whole fiasco with Bristol and The Situation and others that are best described as “disturbing.”

In one of our first posts, Alexandra reminded us that teen moms need our support and understanding; they’re learning to be parents just like any other new moms:

Punishing teens for something they cannot undo is a direct cause of teens being worse parents than they otherwise could be. I am saying that life is really complicated, and the supermature grown-ups out there shaking their heads and tutting might do well to learn that lesson from teen moms like me.

Back in June, Kashamba talked about the importance of helping young parents get a quality education, and just last week Lisette reminded us how hard many young parents are made to fight for that education.

In July, Joelle gave us instructions on “How to Talk to Teen Parents“… and in February, Tracy gave us a few tips on how they should talk back. :)

At the end of the summer, Jessica, Natasha and Tabitha all had posts on how critical the watchful eye of others can be, and how young parents often feel they’re being judged.

We started the school year with Consuela prepared to send her son off to high school (and Joelle deservedly boasting about her son’s high grades). Meanwhile, Tara began graduate school and reflected on bringing her daughter home from hospital to her college dorm:

We brought my daughter home from the hospital to a college dorm room. That’s right — with freshmen. It was a tight fit and at times I was depressed from being surrounded by carefree 18-year-olds, whereas I had to rush to and from class to get my daughter from various babysitters.  But the biggest positive was the fact that we lived on campus, in an academic setting. She was a baby at the time, but I loved telling her how big her backyard was — all 1,200 acres of KSU’s campus. She would come with me to the library, or on the campus bus, or sometimes I had to pack her up and bring her to class.

We talked about TV shows like Glee and The Gilmore Girls — and of course 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom (a few times).  However, one of our favorite small-screen representations of teen pregnancy this year was the webseries 9INE, which Natasha covered in great detail in her reviews.

Around the holidays, Natasha wrote Santa a request for all young parents out there:

And Santa, I have a special request for all the young parents out there. I know how alone I felt during the first couple of years and I remember how much I cried. I never knew what the future held for me and I feared tomorrow. Help me remind them that everything is temporary. Allow them to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Guide them to the right direction by fighting for whatever their child deserves. Persuade them to push a little bit harder and try doing things they were told they could never do. Let them show everyone that one mistake did not lead to a lifetime of sorrow. Help the rest of the world see that we shouldn’t be used as examples – that we are not walking public service announcements. Give them the peace of mind they deserve.

In January, we had some fun with a hilarious guest post from SocialJerk on her work with teen moms, while I enjoy indulging my inner history geek with a post on Teen Mom in History, Margaret Beaufort.

This spring, bloggers Alex and Natasha had the opportunity to “take the show on the road,” speaking at the Alliance’s annual conference, appearing on Parenting in Action, and presenting at Teen Parent Lobby Day.

Tara had the opportunity to interview Gloria Feldt, while Alex spoke with Nicole Lynn Lewis - both wonderfully successful women, both former teen moms.

Some of my favorite posts, though, have been the very personal stories of challenge and triumph that all parents face: when Jessica assertively stated “I am not a failure” in response to cruel internet comments; when Joelle reminded us to be patient with young parents and give them a chance to prove themselves — because they probably will; when Candis wrote that resilience has no age requirement; when Lisette reflected on how she feels when her little ones say, “Mama, I’m proud of you!”

What have been your favorites this year?  What would you like to see from us in the coming year?  As for myself, I can’t wait to see what it brings!