Water Breaking Stereotypes In 'The Pregnancy Project'

Water Breaking Stereotypes

3 in 10 teen American girls will get pregnant at least once before age 20. That's nearly 750,000 teen pregnancies every year. Illustrating this statistic is a memoir The Pregnancy Project where the main character Gaby, lives in poverty and is anticipated to follow in the footsteps of the stereotypes encompassing her and her community. For her senior project she decides to ask herself what if she lived up to the expectations and fake pregnancy all while hiding the truth from her family and peers. Her goal was to unearth the truth about why teen pregnancies are surrounded with negative connotations and to experience what many family members had endured. In her brilliantly organized book, The Pregnancy Project, author

By regularly reverting back to descriptive comparisons she was able to create a film-like tale that not only pulls the reader into an uncommon experience but adds sorrow and shame to society and overall advocates for advancement towards broad expectations. Rodriguez uses her first metaphor while pictorially setting her background announcing, “My mother is a superhero” (Rodriguez 5). Regressing back to the purpose of this memoir which was to break stereotypes overall but precisely between teen moms and society. By just subtly comparing her mom to a superhero which many tend to look up towards, helps break the expectations that teen moms are disappointing and leading their children to failure. Equally compelling was the implementation of correlating Gaby’s senior project being signed off while her heart was racing and articulating that it was as significant to her “...as watching the president sign an important new bill into law” (Rodriguez 95). EquipsEquipping the reader with the impression and importance that Gaby faking a pregnancy is more than a senior project or another required task before graduating and instead deeply personal as well as a way to connect with family and break stereotypes throughout her community. By giving the viewer

Metaphors help compare her situation to something many more have sadly come across; funerals. While equippingcatering the reader of a likely familiar situation it simultaneously indicates her glum interactions with those who once acted normal around her versus how they have turned on her for something occuring in her life. A supporting illustration can be seen after Gaby had gotten home from school with her fake six month bump and was truly weary of her project and the way she was being analyzed constantly stating “I felt like a zoo animal” (Rodriguez 130). Hinting at a dreadful and uncomfortable experience accompanied with stating along the lines of how she was solely just a human incubator (Rodriguez 126). Gaby felt that her identity was being taken away. No longer was she a smart and amiable girl, but now just a part of a statistics. When in reality nothing had changed she was not losing her friendliness and socalarliness but many refused to believe this and associate her with the common belief of a failure. sSo they continued to murmur and roam the hallways instead of changing their beliefs. Thus restoring support for the original claim of the project, that society is to blame for the negative connotations of teen mom and young