Beyond the Book: How to Love by Katie Cotugno


This bookish feature is an original by me! I had the epiphany for this the other day when I was writing out my 15 bookish confessions. (See #7) A lot of times I like to go "beyond the book" and do something that will connect me with the book and characters a little more. It will pop up on Mondays! Be on the look out for which books caught my eye and made me go beyond just reading it!  

How To Love
This Beyond the Book features How to Love by Kate Cotugno.

     According to DoSomething.org, about 3 in 10 girls will get pregnant before the age of 20. This is actually a little better than the 5 out of 10 it was before 1991. Doctors say this number is shrinking, laregly due to simple things like contraceptives. 

"Dumb as it sounds, I didn't totally realize when I was pregnant that Hannah would have an actual personality separate from mine, but sure enough it comes out more and more every day. She likes ice cream, and avocados, and dancing to Beyonce in the back of the car, her small body moving with surprising enthusiasm inside the confines of her safety seat."
     

     As I've been reading this, I've realized that there's a lot of things in the media that circulate around teen pregnancy. I've always been one that hated all the attention it was getting. I don't think teens should be praised for becoming pregnant before they finish high school. No matter how "in love" they are.
     I HATE that teens that appear on 16 & Pregnant and Teen Mom are often known as reality show STARS. Being pregnant as a teen while living in your mom's house with no job and a baby daddy should not make you a television star. It should make you want something more for you and your child and that's it. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that its not possible to take care of a child and be a teen, I'm just saying it makes things a lot harder. By 16 you're barely learning to take care of yourself so I know that taking care of someone else is adding to the stress.

     With teens migrating to the media from all different ways (television, internet, books, movies) the real reason they started airing that show was for teens to see that and for it to scare them into abstinence. This method is apparently not working because according to ABC News, the USA still has the highest rate of teen pregnancy. And even more shocking, those same girls have almost a 100% chance that they'll get pregnant again.And honestly, being real about the situation, how many children actually get picked for that show? Not enough for people to go out there thinking that these television shows can be an out for them.
     What I liked about How to Love was the way it showed the real struggle. As I said in my review, "It's a huge situation that is very relevant in today's society and I was hoping against all hope that it wasn't portrayed like everything was all sunshine and rainbows." And it wasn't. We got to actually see how hard Reena had to work and how things got harder for her. 
 
     In short, teens that are out there having sex, please remember to be SAFE about it. These television shows and movies are not guaranteed for you. Understand that a kid will not exactly ruin your life, but it will cause you to miss out on so many things. You will have to grow up a lot faster and whether you want to admit it or not, you will miss out on so many things. Please take these contraceptives into consideration:
  1. ABSTINENCE
  2. Birth control pills
  3. The Depo shot
  4.  Condoms
  5. Intra uterine devices
  6. the Implant
  7. Books that show the REAL struggle
     Have you ever had such a connection with a book that you had to go beyond just reading it? 

Join me on Mondays with Beyond the Book! 

   

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