You look too young to be a mother

i haven't read the whole thing yet, but i saw it at the bookstore and sat there and read the chapters by alli, rosie, and julie. I have been meaning to start a thread and say great job on your essays mamas, but i keep forgetting . If i am missing anybody else who wrote for that book, let me know!! I don't know all of your full names...anyway, i plan on buying the book here pretty soon when i get some xtra cash.

I'm going to get my library to buy this book! They have absolutley nothing in the way of books for or about young mamas, but 3 or 4 on becoming a mother after 35, 40 and the like. I live in yuppie town.

yay! the books great! im loving so many of the essays. this book is totally reminding me why i really want to work with teen moms. more later!

i heard she made no acknolowedgement of girlmom. is that true?? arent most of her essayist from here?

That sounds interesting, I will have to look for it!

*ahem*

I especially enjoyed "My Amazing Breasts" ;-)

Okay so I'm still reading this and it kind of bothers me at this one part, I mean it's a great essay but ughhhhhh. It's the one by Latisha Boyd (Growing up too fast).

THIS is what bothered me and maybe it bothered some of you too or maybe I'm just...dumb for it bothering me.

I can't even articulate why this bothered me but it did. I'm hoping one of you more articulate women will come in here and put it into words.

I am ordering it today. Woohoo! I can't wait.

My library had already bought it! It's on order right now. Yeah! I have it on hold, I'm so excited to read it!

I think that it may be because of the way race was emphisized and the stereotypes in it. I'm not sure exactly how to word it, but yeah.

Exactly. I believe she's a black woman (she mentions growing up in the "all-black" part so I'm guessing she's black) and it confuses me to all hell why she'd want to make such a big deal of the stereotypes. I realize they exist sometimes but damn.

Maybe it's true, in her experience. If so, I wouldn't want her to diminish or downplay her experience, in order not to offend liberal white people.

oh yah, I bought it.

and I am going to spend my long weekend reading it. ... oh ya. oh ya!

Fairytale said

Exactly. Eve I had a similar response of discomfort, and then I thought "Who am I to tell her to rewrite her life so that it doesn't push MY "not-PC! not-PC!" panic button?" i think the thing with stereotypes is not to insist that they cannot POSSIBLY be true, since some teen moms abandon their kids, some POC sell drugs, some southerners are racist drunks, etc., but to make sure people know they are not ALWAYS true. there's pretty much a person to fill every niche, so there's probably a person somewhere who fills every stereotype, and it's not their job to alter who they are just so I feel better hearing about them.

Perhaps the whole "don't be a stereotype!" thing is another tool of marginalization. Are 30 year old mothers worried about being stereotypes? Probably not, because they are the "norm," so there really isn't a stereotype for them. Maybe "don't be a stereotype" really means "act the way we want you to, or else we will write you off, and possibly your whole "group" too."

BTW, my essay is SUPER dorky you guys.

It's not so much what she wrote but how it was wordered. Seemed like she had to emphasize that they were all black. Leaving it at "where people paid fifty dollars for rent while driving a Lexus or BMW" wouldn't have changed anything that happened to her or how her story.

Like, why was skin colour even an issue ya know? Plus, she was kind of like CHECK IT OUT PEOPLE DO ABUSE WELFARE AND I'LL TELL YOU ALL ABOUT IT.

I wanna know what Welfare pays enough to buy Gucci so I can get on it ;-)

amazon.com

i loved your essay. guess that makes me a dork too :). i liked it though and all of the ones i've read so far. i'll have to admit i've been reading the ones from members here first, but i plan to read the whole thing becuase it looks really good. i haven't read it enough to get this inpression my self but i just read an review about it in bust where the reveiwer was dissapointed that the group of writers in the book weren't as diverse as the back cover claimed them to be. anyone get this impression.

i agree, seems a lot of them did the same thing.

I just got the book in the mail yesterday. So far I am not entirely impressed, but I will keep on reading! I can't wait to rad the essays from all the girls from gm. I only know of a few, who all is in the book?

i'd really like to see that Bust article. I'm curious as to what sort of diversity the writer thinks the book is missing. I'm not a fan of Bust, so I'd like to see what is said.

Do they mean diversity as in "where they came from," or diversity as in "what life path they took"? If it's the latter, i think a lot of people wanted to prove that they could do the ultimate That Which Cannot Be Done for someone who starts parenting before 20; college. The general "becoming a teen parent was the catalyst for me doing x and changing my life for the better" is a common theme, but it's a common theme for all of us. If having a baby made your life completely suck, you wouldn't generally respond to the call for essays, or be posting on a message board.

i'm guessing the writer was talking about diverisity as in wher they came from, ethnic background sort of thing. not sure though either. it was a pretty vague review.

I'm curious too. I emailed Bust & asked which back issue it's in. I'll post which one if they email me back.

It's the Summer '04 issue...

is that the geek chic one?

also I <3 your nick :)

Thanks!

It's the Jena Malone cover...

yall wrote a book! hwo cool!!! ill have to ask moms for it maybe i can get it next month!! :D :D :D :D

i actually bought the book a few weeks ago... I really liked it for the most part. Most of it was how I thought it would be but it was nice to see the mamas from here... ;)

Whered you buy it from Jenni? Do u think barnes and noble would have it..or Powells?

I was surprised to find this at my public library, which does not have a very large selection. I started reading Sat. and am almost done. I can't seem to put it down. I was surprised to see an essay in the book by this woman I had a class with a few years ago. I didn't know her, but she had an unusual name, so I remembered her and sure enough she's from minneapolis. I agree that the collection of stories isn't that diverse, but these are all written by the featured girls and woman. There is going to be a certain level of education at least amoung those who write an essay like these.

I just bought this book off of amazon.com :P I cant wait to recieve it