#she was an unplanned teenage pregnancy and was only born because her parents had a flat tire on the way to the abortion clinic

[my-thoughts-and-junk]

give summer a character arc challenge

[policemanofprincesspark]

Condoms can rip and he cannot force her to take plan b. Also him saying he’s not against teenage pregnancies sounds like he’s saying he doesn’t judge the mothers. I’m all for calling him out for his shitty behavior, like hanging out with Liam being quiet on a genocide etc. but yea I don’t get why we should judge him for having an oops baby. I’m one of those as well.

I just find it nihilistic as all hell to be so uncaring about parenthood in general. Like, okay, girls can start getting pregnant at around 12-13 years old, so biologically that should be the age of parenthood since birth control is a manmade invention, but so what? We as a society have a set standard age range for expectant parenthood because we've developed morals—the same reason we also like to discourage having babies with people we aren't serious about or don't know too well. I don't want to live in a world where children are having children and where someone who is only in their 20s or 30s already has grown children. It's not prudish to have any standards whatsoever like some people on tumblr.com like to claim.

You're correct in your first statement, but that's why you need to be more careful. Why isn't everyone having accidental babies? If they can help it, so can Louis.

Regardless, what's happened has happened. The main point now is that he should have understood what he was getting into when he consented to having sex with Briana (if that is the case) and acted after the fact by stepping up as a present and strong father. I get that he was only 23 when she was pregnant and 24 when the baby was born, but being forced into that kind of situation should spark some motivation in you to be like, "well, this is my life now" and accept the consequences. Instead, just like many unplanned parents, he wants to live the same way he did before Freddie existed, save for a few drop-ins here and there as if he's the kid's uncle and not his father. That would only be excusable in my book if Louis had been just 3 years younger than he was when Freddie was born.

[iridiafields]

now that im done with my moodboards ( lies ) i'm going to do some reworking with rina's character. so buckle up, this is gonna be a long one LOL

quick intro: rina kisaragi is a famous teenage detective much like naoto shirogane from persona 4. she did get isekai'd into the world of persona 5 ( royal in particular ) and is a sister to another character. the main premise of her story is that she's the other side of one coin; another possibility born from the same soul in her original world.

she's rude, snarky, and overall a mean person who excuses her behavior as sarcasm. not really the greatest person to be with or work with but her attitude is justified, sort of.

in my original story for her: her parents got divorced after a nasty doxing issue which prompted her family's move from inaba to tokyo. one argument led to another, it eventually ended with her mother admitting how she was an unplanned child and wholly ruined her dreams of becoming a doctor because of issues arising during the pregnancy.

now, rina is probably my most self-projected self-insert; instead of distancing herself from her father, it's the opposite.

after the argument, rina's overall relationship with older women soured. yes, she knows the story and how it'll unfold, and yes, she knows the character save for her parents and a few others she'll meet, but having your own mother tell you that it's your fault she's a failure, well it leaves a bad taste in your mouth doesn't it.

rina began walking on eggshells around her family after her father remarried. basically running away after an almost freak accident in the train station happened and cutting all contact. by the time she entered her 3rd year in shujin academy, her father finally found her and offered her a position in the detective world as his replacement as he finishes some loose ends in inaba. rina agreed with the condition that when he comes back, they don't associate with one another ever.

i need to note that by this point of her story, she's fully erased herself from the original story of p5r, until he finds an old revolver that belonged to S.E.E.S under her father's bed. a new can of worms is opened when she realizes she's not the only person to get reincarnated or reborn in this world.

okay so that's the basic rundown of her character, now for the changes i wanted to make:

1. her abilities

originally, i wanted her to have a persona. but as of recently, i decided to remove this from her arsenal entirely. her entire character is built up on the idea "you got the bad end of the stick" and what's better than a slap to the face if not knowing even if she wanted to change the story, she can't.

2. rina's shadow/palace

again, i wanted rina to have a persona, and before she could get one she needs to confront her own shadow. since she no longer has the ability of the main cast, her shadow's role in the palace is demoted from a palace ruler to instead some sort of mini boss in mementos.

3. sena and rina kisaragi

now here's my favorite part: character foils. i'll yap about sena soon when i flesh out her character more but like rina she's the other possibility; the other side of that coin. they serve as foils to each other for one main reason: sena is weak-willed, a coward yet holds immense power due to her connections in the velvet room, but on the other hand, rina is recklessly brave, having the determination to have a god give her his blessings but still have no power in anything.

sena who got the better end of the stick was the first to run away while rina who go the worse end stared at a murderer straight in the eye. though sena grew up with her parents and both were happy, she made no actual connection with them. in contrast, rina pushed hers away and yet they still make an effort to pull her back.

they both struggle with immense self-worth issues but the line is crossed when meaning is given to the prettier possibility while the common looking one had to beg and fight tooth and nail for a single drop of it.

okay i think that's it for now LMAOO will yap about sena and make her tags soon

[estrella-ortiz]

trigger warnings include: parental death, violence mentions or implications, drug, smoking & alcohol mentions or implications, unplanned pregnancy, mentions of terminal illness

SKELETON: 

The Creative

FULL CHARACTER NAME:

Estrella ‘Ella’ Ortiz

FACE CLAIM:

Adria Arjona

AGE & DATE OF BIRTH: 

30, November 7 1992

HOMETOWN:

Chicago born and raised, up until a few years ago

TIME LIVING IN CHICAGO: 

Back for a few (~3) weeks, though lived here from the birth until the age of 25

NEIGHBORHOOD:

The South Side

OCCUPATION:

A tattoo artist at a local shop. She is not a member of the Devil’s Disciples, but her strong family ties to the MC.

GENDER, PRONOUNS & SEXUALITY:Ella is a ciswoman and uses she/her pronouns. She is bisexual and biromantic.

BACKGROUND:

Estrella’s childhood was full of the rumble of a motorcycle and the scent of engine oil, the wind in her hair on the back of her dad’s bike. Her formative days were ones filled with cigarette smoke, leather and patches with no bedtime to speak of. Little girls were supposed to be soft and gentle, lace and silk, but Ella was all hard edges and grit from the day she was born.  Far from idyllic, home was the back of her daddy’s bike because that was the home they made. The club was family, and home was on the back of a bike with the wind in her hair. Estrella was raised within the Devil’s Disciples because her father was a member, and that was the only life she’d ever known: you live by the club and die by the club, and that was the lesson she clung to. That was what mattered, at the end of each and every day and that was really the only thing that struck home with her. Their family might be unconventional, but Ella would not have wanted it any other way. This was the life she was given, and it was the life she would have chosen for herself if given the option. Ella’s view of the club may have been through rose-colored-glasses considering how she was raised and considering how much she adored her father, though that didn’t matter to her.  From the day she could walk and toddle after him, Ella was following in her father’s footsteps. She was ever the daddy’s girl, wanting to be just like him when she grew up and that expanded and grew as she did. She was covered in grease and engine oil from the time she was in pre-school, knew the steps to an oil change on her dad’s bike before she could write her name. It didn’t matter what she was doing so long as he was proud. School was never of interest, even from an early age: Ella’s attention span did not lend itself to ABCs or 123s, and focusing on lessons and memorization had never been her style. Ella had always been the type to learn with her hands, always had a need to be kept busy and moving or her interest would move on. In the case of school, that straying interest usually started with doodling on the edge of her paper with a soft reprimand from a teacher that would escalate to trouble. Trouble started with fidgeting and finding reasons to leave her seat, and escalated to being smart-mouthed and pulling hair to get her excused from class. The lectures she would inevitably receive from her mother (called from work, again, to come collect her) would make Ella temporarily sheepish (and later, she’d at least pretend to be), but at least at home she was free to draw and move about without redirection. Trouble in later years meant truancy, fighting, suspension, detention. In truth, she only finished school at her parents’ insistence that a high school degree would open opportunities for her that she wouldn’t have otherwise. Teenage rebellion had her spitting back that she didn’t want those opportunities, but well, even as a sassy teenager Ella couldn’t stand to disappoint her father.

Trouble in later years meant truancy, fighting, suspension, detention. In truth, she only finished school at her parents’ insistence that a high school degree would open opportunities for her that she wouldn’t have otherwise. Teenage rebellion had her spitting back that she didn’t want those opportunities, but well, even as a sassy teenager Ella couldn’t stand to disappoint her father. The theme of trouble seemed to follow her outside of school, sticking around like a bad rash and causing more headaches for parents. The trouble continued even after high school ended, and well, began to escalate. Late night phone calls from bars that should never have admitted her or from the police station became a common theme, and a slew of misdemeanors began to rack up before she’d even reached adulthood: petty theft, speeding and racing (on that bike her father had given her for her fifteenth birthday), drunk and disorderly,, trespassing and vandalism. The list grew and grew, though her father could never feign disappointment and anger for long: in the end, he would grin and shake his head because she was her father’s daughter. Ella had always liked to work with her hands, and art was an early interest that stuck with her through the ins-and-outs (mostly outs) of school and everything in-between. Doodling on papers to avoid doing work progressed into intricate sketches, and as she grew older the interest in art stayed consistent and grew. Art school temporarily crossed her mind, but well, she didn’t have the grades for that (and that was her own doing, her mother would remind her). Sketching on skin and in the holes of her jeans led to buying a crappy tattoo gun and practicing on herself and her friends for free, but getting an apprenticeship straight out of school seemed impossible. So she worked at a local diner, tattooed in her free time and set her sights on making something for herself, school be damned.

Life with the club remained. Ella was as involved as she could be without prospecting and patching in. The club was her family, always would be. You live and die by the club. And well, she saw that first hand. Her father, dead on the side of the road somewhere in an accident.. Ella had seen it on the news before she’d gotten the news from the police: the red and blue lights, strung out and blaring on the evening news report. Couldn’t be him. It just couldn’t be him, right? No, he’d be home soon and they’d laugh it off together. Ella left the funeral halfway through. Couldn’t take it. Couldn’t handle it. She’d always been her father’s daughter, so who the hell was she now? She was gone three months later, without a goddamn trace. She left behind just about everything, including the only life she’d ever known and everything she’d ever wanted for herself. Left her apartment only half-vacated, packed up only the essentials into her crappy tin can of a car and fucking split. She didn’t have a goal in mind, didn’t have a destination in mind. All Ella knew was she needed to leave, couldn’t fucking breathe at home anymore. No, all she wanted was to disappear. And the positive pregnancy test she’d popped before leaving only cemented her need to get the hell out and not look back. New York sounded nice, and well, she was used to living in a city. The shoebox apartment she got for herself was sketchy at best, but it was hers and it would work. It took her some time to decide what to do with the baby, but Luna Noelle was born on Christmas Eve and all at once Ella’s perspective of everything changed. As much as she missed home, missed her life, missed her family (the club, her mom, her siblings), she wouldn’t return. No, that little girl was her world now and Ella owed it to her to be better. She owed that baby a life that wasn’t the one that she’d been raised in. She owed that baby a life where her parents wouldn’t be found dead in a ditch on the side of the road. And so, Ella and Luna settled into New York. That shoebox apartment got smaller as Luna got bigger, but they made due. Art school was no longer a far-off dream, and Ella worked at a diner and took classes at night to make it work. A tattoo apprenticeship took up was little time was left in her days, and while she might be fucking exhausted she was doing what she set out to do: she was making a life for her and her daughter, come hell or high water. Home was still on her mind, and the tingle of guilt or regret or homesickness came at unexpected moments. It was less raw now, years later, though undeniably still there. She missed her family, missed her home, missed her bike. Luna’s childhood was not full of leather and patches (though admittedly some cigarette smoke) as her own had been, and while that was what Ella wanted there was still some sadness that her daughter would never know the club.

Until, as life would have it, things spun out of Ella’s control again: her mother was sick. Not little sick, big sick, and Ella found herself packing up that piece-of-shit-car that was still in her name and breaking the lease on her apartment to move back home. On the drive from Manhattan to Chicago, she told Luna all about how they would be staying at Abuela’s house, how Abuela would be so excited to see her instead of just speak to her on the phone, but inside Ella couldn’t help but feel conflicted. She’d left home, left everything she’d ever known behind, and now she was running right back to it. The long term game had never been clear (and well, she’d never been good at planning), but this hadn’t certainly not been on her five-year-plan. She’d worked so hard to provide for Luna, to keep her from the childhood she’d known. Ella had that thought firmly in her mind, as she moved back into her childhood bedroom and began her apartment search. She’d do better still, for Luna. But…well, Ella still was her father’s daughter.

[izzizander]

I want to talk about my personal experiences with the whole pro life pro choice debate but Twitter isn’t a great outlet for a long form essay. So here we are.

I am alive because my mother had an abortion.

Yeah. Read that again. I exist today, because abortion was legal and safe and allowed for my mom.

My mom and dad met when they were teenagers. Instantly hit it off. Got married when they were 18 and 19, and they knew they wanted kids and my mom had my brother at 21.

He was planned and his pregnancy was rough for my mom, but his birth was easy compared to mine. So easy she was excited and ready for another child.

They wanted my brother’s sibling to be close in age range, maybe a year or two older. My parents both had siblings and the age gap between them was anywhere from 6 to 10+ years, so they both knew how different that experience was growing up.

My parents tried for their second child. My mom got pregnant. She was excited.

3 months later, she’s experiencing discomfort and nausea. Nothing uncommon with pregnancy. But then she started spotting, like she was on her period.

My mom’s pregnancy was ectopic. It had embedded into her Fallopian tube, and was beginning to cause bleeding. My moms only option was an abortion.

Abortion is the only option for ectopic pregnancy. You can’t re-implant the embryo. There is no such procedure in modern medicine that can fix an ectopic.

Thankfully that was an option for my mom. And her life was saved. She was devastated it happened. She kept the ultrasound photos and documents from the pregnancy. When I was old enough for her to share this with me, I looked at these photos. It deeply affected my mom even then, and I imagine it still does.

After a time, she got pregnant again, because she still wanted a child. And eventually I was born. My birth was awful though. It took 3 days of labor for me to be born. I was breached, should have been a C section, but I was too far along for that. My mom needed over 25 stitches from the tearing that happened during my birth. I was also unconscious, blue, and not breathing when I came out. My umbilical cord was wrapped around my neck and my right arm was above my head, tangled in the cord. I needed to be revived, but I was ok.

After that experience my mom decided ok that was enough of that, and had her tubes tied.

But if my mom hadn’t had the abortion before me? If she lived in a state that just banned abortion? My mom would have died, or been arrested. For something out of her control. For losing a baby she desperately wanted.

People of all walks of life will suffer from this decision. If you are against abortion, that’s your choice. That’s the choice you make for yourself, with your path walked.

Many people no longer have that choice. Sometimes the human body can make mistakes. Things happen out of our control. Even in situations where things aren’t unplanned or unwanted.

It angers me to no end. Back in high school I told this story to a class of people who were all pro life. Some of them changed their viewpoint after. No one had considered that abortion was a life saving procedure for some folks.

Everyone loves to demonize it. To weaponize and politicize it to oppress people and guilt them, and raise themselves up on a higher moral pedestal where they slut shame, degrade and humiliate people who don’t agree with them.

It’s disgusting. And I’m sickened that this is still an argument being made, that I have to fight about.

[worldwidemochiguy]

MFEEU! Second Generation Profiles 💕✨

↳ MFEEU! Tae Masterlist 

↳ Link to Yoongi’s MFEEU one shot and Hoseok’s 

↳ General Masterlist :)

The kids 

Jin

↳ No children (he’s happy being a godfather!!)

Yoongi

↳ Yoona 

Hoseok

↳ Seojoon 

Namjoon

↳ Namgyu 

Jimin

↳ Jihae 

↳ Jihyun

Taehyung

↳ Haneul 

↳ Haewon

Jungkook

↳ Minho

↳ Mina 

(wow i just realised i gave the rapline all one kid and the maknaes two kids huh)

When they’re born: 

first it’s Kim Haneul 

↳ the next year is Kim Namgyu and Park Jihae

↳ the next year is Park Jihyun and Jeon Minho

↳ the next year Jung Seojoon

↳ the next year Jeon Mina and Kim Haewon

↳ and five years after that... Min Yoona 

Profiles :)

Kim Haneul 

Tae and his wife’s first child

The eldest of all the mfeeu kids

Very protective of all her younger siblings, especially Haewon 

Minho has a crush on her for the loooongest time (she sees him as an annoying little brother) 

Abuses her privilege as the eldest to get all of her dongsaengs to do whatever she wants (apart from Jihae) 

She inherited her mother’s sincerity and tae’s determination 

Her and Namgyu are like the only responsible ones

Taehyung is very happy leaving the business in her hands once she’s old enough

As she grows older she realises the special feelings she’s always felt towards Jihae are different than how she cares for her sister

She loves Haewon of course, but with Jihae it’s different. She wants to always take care of her, spend every minute with her, kiss her. 

They start dating when Jihae turns 15. both Jimin and Jihyun tell her she better take care of Jihae or else. Haneul has no intention to do anything other than that.

Kim Namgyu

Namjoon and his darling’s first and only child

Strict with all of his dongsaengs but would let Mina get away with murder

He’d probably help her with it tbh

Haneul’s right hand man, slated to help her with the business once he’s older

He inherited his father’s intellect. He helps all his dongsaengs in their lil homeschool lessons and once he’s finished his work he’ll leave the classroom they have set up and go and sit with his father

(Namjoon is the softest dad ever oh my god 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺)

Namgyu has dimples that pop out every time Mina calls him ‘Namu’ 

Him and Minho have a brotherly relationship. He, along with Jihyun, help Minho to get over Haneul. 

He’s known that he loved Mina since she was 5 and he was 8, but of course he waited until she was 18 because of the age gap between them.

Mina had no such reservations. She asked him to date her when she was 14 and he had to gently turn her down because she was way too young to be dating a 17 year old. 

She would stubbornly ask him every year on her birthday if she was old enough to date him yet, and on her 18th birthday he finally answered with ‘yes’ and kissed her

That was probably the worst day of Jungkook’s life.

Park Jihae

Jimin and his girlfriend’s first child

Despite being one of the oldest, she is babied by the entire group, ESPECIALLY Haneul

She’s so soft like oml 🥺🥺🥺

she inherited her father’s stature so by the time they’re all teenagers she’s the most smol (along with Mina who’s only an inch taller than her)

(by the time Yoona reaches her teens she’s also taller than Jihae)

Jimin’s little princess

She barely leaves his lap for the first five years of her life

Shes so clingy as well 🥺🥺🥺

She follows Haneul around holding her hand bc she doesn’t want to get lost 

She really likes doing ballet. She tries to teach Haneul but they soon stop bc to put it lightly Haneul is hopeless

She is the softest big sister to Jihyun. 

The only time she gets mad at him is when he sometimes refuses to call her noona 

Once Mina and Haewon are born the trio has been completed

They are the unofficial maknaes of the group, along with Yoona who they treat like their own little dolly

They coordinate their clothes and everything. your squad wishes. 

She’s the most oblivious person though. she doesn’t even realise she’s in love w Haneul until her 15th birthday when Haneul kisses her. and then she’s like oh. oh.

they are the softest girlfriends ever bls i can’t 🥺🥺

Park Jihyun and Jeon Minho

Jimin’s second child and Jungkook’s first

I put them together bc they’re honestly inseparable 

They’re the troublemakers of the group, rivalled only by Mina and Haewon.

Jihyun was born two months before Minho, he insists that Minho calls him hyung

Minho refuses

Jihyun is the more responsible of the two, but barely. Namgyu’s kind of like their older brother, they both look up to him a lot. 

Seojoon is their dongsaeng who they lovingly bully

Minho has a massive crush on Haneul. 

He isn’t yandere for her, he just has a thing for noonas like father like son 

At one point he tries to have a rivalry with Jihae because Haneul likes her so much but it doesn’t work bc Jihae is so sweet she doesn’t even realise what he’s trying to do and also Jihyun is super protective of his older sister and he nips it in the bud

After that he resolves to get over Haneul because he doesn’t want anything to come in between him and Jihyun. 

Jihyun and Minho are definitely soulmates. Hoseok is convinced they will date at some point. There’s a betting pool which Jungkook refuses to enter bc he thinks its wrong to bet on his sons love life. Jimin on the other hand has lost almost a million won because he keeps betting that they’ll announce that they’re dating soon. 

Jung Seojoon

Hoseok’s pride and joy

He’s so similar to his daddy guys it’s adorable 🥺

He has so much energy all the time, it is common to see his little head popping over the edge of Hoseok’s desk as he jumps around the room

Namgyu loves him but he doesn’t understand him at all

Seojoon loves to play dress up with Mina, Haewon and Jihae

He is not trusted with Yoona bc, though his intentions are absolutely pure, she usually ends up crying 

Always breaking the rules. a loveable rascal we have here. 

He knows when to push boundaries but he’s largely well behaved bc his dad taught him well 🥰🥰 (unlike many of the other fathers who spoil their kids) 

Seojoon knew he loved Haewon since his fourth Christmas. Seojoon was hunting for the presents and when Haewon caught him, she joined him in searching instead of ratting him out.

From that moment on they were partners in crime. 

It was only inevitable they started dating, obvious to literally everyone except Taehyung who refused to believe his daughter was a rule breaker in any shape or form.

Jeon Mina and Kim Haewon

Jungkook’s and Tae’s youngest girls 🥺

I put them together for the same reason I put Jihyun and Minho together. They’re inseparable 

They were actually born within two days of each other. Haewon was born early and Tae always says it’s because she couldn’t wait to meet her best friend (besides him, of course)

Look Haewon even has his nose mole 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺

They rival Jihyun and Minho in terms of general naughtiness 

Seojoon helps them out sometimes, and in that time Mina always giggles at how silly Seojoon and Haewon act around each other

but all Haewon as to do is mention Namgyu and Mina stops making fun of her and starts blushing

Haewon and Mina talk about Seojoon and Namgyu literally all the time

When they’re older they trick their parents saying that Haewon and Mina are hanging out together and Seojoon and Namgyu are hanging out together and then they swap

Namgyu would normally disapprove but it means he gets more time to spend with Mina so he’s not snitching 

Mina is sooo bitter when Haewon starts dating Seojoon bc Namgyu is apparently ‘too old’ for her so she can’t date yet

once Namgyu finally gives in on her 18th birthday and kisses her, she calls Haewon  up screaming with excitement (little does she know Namgyu at that moment is calling Haneul and freaking tf out)

when they get married to their boyfriends they have a joint wedding 🥰🥰 Namgyu was originally against it but Mina gave him her infamous doe eyes which she inherited from her father and he allowed it reluctantly

Min Yoona

Yoongi’s unplanned but very adored daughter

By the time she’s born, Yoongi is in his mid to late 30s

To be honest, Yoongi had been happy helping to raise his friends kids, i mean they were all practically his godchildren and there wasn’t a week where he wasn’t babysitting at least three of his friends children

But sometimes he would watch Tae teaching Haneul to dance standing on his toes, or see Hoseok playing hide and seek with Seojoon, and he would feel this strange ache in his heart

When they found out Yoongi’s wife was pregnant, they considered not going through with the pregnancy, but ultimately decided against it after one of the members let slip that Yoongi’s wife was pregnant and then all of the kids ran up to Yoongi with eyes as big as dinner plates, asking eagerly if they were going to have another little sister. 

As soon as Yoongi saw Yoona for the first time, he realised how stupid he was for not wanting children earlier. but he was almost grateful that he hadn’t had them earlier, because if he had then they wouldn’t be Yoona. And Yoona is perfect.

She’s babied by the entire group. Mina and Haewon are only five when she’s born and they love playing with her. She’s never left alone for a moment —  like Yoongi feared she would be since all of the other kids were so close in age and Yoona was so much younger. 

All of the children want their chance to play with Yoona and even the members love being able to play with a baby again after their children had outgrown it. 

If Yoona ever tries to start dating… oh boy. 

just to recap, the couples are...

↳ Kim Haneul and Park Jihae

↳ Kim Namgyu and Jeon Mina

↳ Jung Seojoon and Kim Haewon

[chilling-seavey]

Lucy Elizabeth Seavey was born on June 24th, 2024 at 1:56pm, brought calmly into the world from the comfort of home. She was 7lbs 11oz and 20 inches long with a full head of light blonde hair and bright blue eyes and the moment she breathed her first breath, her parents fell just in love with her than they had with her two older sisters – especially Daniel who cried his eyes out when she was born.

Florence and Daniel had two babies well before they got married yet alone engaged as life had a few unplanned tricks up its sleeve but, on their wedding night, the newlyweds agreed that they wanted one more baby; their one chance to things ‘the right way’. So they came back home from their honeymoon pregnant and unbelievably in love and spent the next few months preparing their apartment for their third child’s arrival. After two stressful pregnancies, Florence wanted nothing but the epitome of calm for this last one so they worked with a midwife and got a homebirth set up for whenever baby girl #3 was set to arrive. Lucy’s birth story can be found here if you’re interested!

For the other two girls, Florence had chosen their names since she was technically a single mother at the time of the birth certificate signings, but with Lucy, Daniel and Florence went through list after list together almost every night before bed to find the perfect name together. By now you know that Daniel had a bit of a music obsession and he was really searching for a name that meant just as much to him that Florence liked as well. Lucy was named after a song by The Beatles (Daniel’s favourite band), Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, which Daniel did not know was about LSD until his daughter was already a year old. He had a bit of a mental breakdown over that: “I named my baby daughter after a hallucinogenic drug?! What kind of father does that?!”. Elizabeth was simply another old fashion regal name that Florence adored and it flowed so nicely with her first name. Lucy Elizabeth; their littlest princess.

It was already a short name so there wasn’t much room for nicknames but she was Lucy Lu to her family and Lu-Lu to her sisters, princess to Daniel for reasons stated above – she was their littlest princess and Daniel’s own sweet little mini me. She might have had her mother’s blonde hair but she had Daniel’s eyes, nose, and infectious smile…definitely a Seavey with those beautiful genes.

Lucy had always been an independent girl; she was the earliest of her sisters to walk and talk, and her favourite phrase as a baby and toddler was “me do” as she was determined to do things herself. Despite this fierce independence of hers, Lucy always held her family close and loved to spend time with them – Christmas had always been her favourite time of the year since they got to visit Daniel’s parents and siblings in Vancouver. She was a sociable girl and loved to talk since the moment she could, making up all sorts of stories through every part of her day, especially to Daniel. They called Lucy ‘Daniel’s Shadow’ because she was always rushing after him wherever he went from the day she could walk (and even before that as she always demanded to be picked up by him). The poor man could hardly go to the bathroom without the baby toddling after him. He learned to lock the door the hard way.

When it came to her interests, Lucy was the daughter who had a knack for music, she was Daniel’s little musical prodigy. He tried to get all of his girls interested in at least piano from a young age but Clementine got bored of it too easily and Penelope just could not get it right…with Lucy, Daniel went in to their first home lesson with low hopes but she caught on almost right away; even Florence was shocked at how easily it came to her pre-school daughter. Of course, this was a dangerous game as she often woke up in the middle of the night to Daniel and four-year-old Lucy sat at the grand piano in the living room at 3am punching out a few tunes in their pyjamas. He just couldn’t help himself.

Daniel took it upon himself to teach Lucy everything that he knew about music and he brought her to his studio often to not only give her music lessons but teach her about producing as she got older. By the time she was fourteen, Tuesdays and Thursdays after school were the days when Lucy would take the subway to the studio and spend the remainder of Daniel’s workday working with him and making music. It was the reason why Clementine and Penelope always called Lucy his favourite child. But Daniel didn’t have a favourite; he loved all his girls the exact same. He just had an extra thing to connect with Lucy through. Lucy had started piano lessons by age four, guitar at seven, cello at nine, and singing lessons off and on throughout her elementary school years and into high school; all taught to her by her father which definitely saved the family a lot of money. In high school, she was in the performing arts program for instrumental music (she played cello in the band but could also pick up the flute if they needed) and theatre. She dabbled in a little dance as she grew up too; ballet, tap, and musical theatre. She really gave multi-talented Clementine a run for her money sometimes. High school allowed her to really blossom in theatre, always in awe by musical films and live theatre on their one family trip to New York and she saw her first Broadway show. Daniel was her go to for music but her Uncle Christian was her go to for acting since he majored in it in college himself and Lucy called him often for advice or video chatted him to run lines for her school plays.

School wasn’t really Lucy’s first priority other than the arts. She did reasonably well in school but could have really shone if she applied herself; and she got into arguments with Florence a lot about it, her mother trying hard to get her to put the same amount of dedication into her school work that she put into her music. English and math and science and the sort never interested Lucy though, and she could never bring herself to work hard in those generic subjects since all she wanted to do in life was musical theatre; a perfect mesh of her music and her acting. She begged her parents to let her apply to art schools for university to major in musical theatre but they were concerned because it wasn’t a very promising career for post-graduation. On their trip to Vancouver for Christmas for her senior year, Lucy confided in Christian and he woke up at 4am one day to sneak her out across the bay to the city of Victoria to tour the Canadian College of Performing Arts and be back in time for supper. Lucy absolutely fell in love with the campus and the program and she came back to her grandparents’ house absolute beaming and thrusting the pamphlets at her parents, rushing out everything she learned and planned from the tour. Christian’s cheeky grin at his brother and sister-in-law’s unimpressed glares was magazine worthy. So Lucy moved to BC the following year to major in musical theatre at CCPA.

Lucy was very generous, charming, and really too sweet for her own good. She was fiercely independent and sociable and always had lots of friends as she loved being kind to everyone. She always felt emotions strongly which often allowed for harsh mood swings is someone questioned her character, passions, or her family. She loved being surrounded by people and tended to fall in love the ‘fastest’ out of her sisters. She had a few boyfriends while growing up, her most serious one during her senior year was her prom date and left her with a pregnancy scare at nearly eighteen and Daniel almost died and went to heaven when she came to her parents crying in fear; not only because that was his little girl but because her boyfriend always reminded him of Florence’s jerk off of an ex, Matt. Thankfully, all was well, the pregnancy test was negative, and Lucy moved across the country for school. She had a few quick romances over there, often fueled by sudden passion and momentary infatuation rather than love per se but she fell hard for her university dance coach, Xavier, in third year. He was only a few years older than her and both of them seemed to have an attraction they couldn’t deny, but Lucy let him chase her for a bit before they finally went on a few dates and made it official. Daniel was not impressed that he was the last one to find out about that and through his brother, Tyler, of all people. Since when did Tyler know more about his daughter’s life than he did? Regardless, Xavier was a good guy and when Lucy brought him home one summer, Florence and Daniel knew they were a perfect match.

For those of you interested in astrology, Lucy is a Cancer Sun, Aquarius Moon, and Libra Rising.

She is the most religious out of her family and even as a kid would shout “Thank you, God!” before eating her dinner. Her favourite colour is gold or literally anything that sparkles, she loves all genres of music but has a secret playlist of early 2000s punk rock, she has her parents’ initials tattooed on her ankle, and her favourite meal always has been chicken nuggets and she lives off of them in university.

Lucy’s songs are:

Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds by The Beatles

Elizabeth by Julia Jacklin

Face Claims:

Baby Lucy’s face-claim is Pose LaBrant (@/posierayne on Instagram). These photos are not mine, all credit belongs to her

Teenage Lucy’s face-claim (ABM2 Era) is Mackenzie True (@/macktrue on Instagram). These photos are not mine, all credit belongs to her

[thatchickjoanna]

             joanna massey. thirty-one. apartment 406.

                     has lived in wisteria apartments for two years.

                             + FREE-SPIRITED / - SARDONIC

BASIC INFORMATION

Full Name: Joanna Grace Godwin-Massey Nicknames: Jo ( preferred ) , Jojo ( rarely and only by really old friends ) Age: 31 Date of Birth: May 27, 1989  Occupation: Pastry Chef

Gender: Female Nationality: American Hometown: Alexandria, Virginia Religion: Atheist  Languages: English, the slightest bit of Spanish

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

Hair Color: Brown Eye Color: Blue Height: 5′2″ Build: Lean but not toned, decent arms and legs tho from kneading dough and chasing around her kid

Distinguishing Features: small scar just above her left brow from falling off a playground while drunk when she was a teenager ( dumbass ! ) Tattoos: 1.24.09 on her inner right forearm ( it’s her son’s birthday, hard to read because the numbers are read from her side ) Piercings: Earlobes (both ears), Industrial (right ear), Helix (right ear)

ABOUT JOANNA

— Joanna was born to a conservative family in Alexandria, Virginia. She was always a bit of a wildcard from a young age so she didn’t fit in very well and quickly became the family disappointment as she got older

— She’s the second youngest of six siblings. She always jokes that if her parents just had a TV in their bedroom, there wouldn’t be so many of them. She’s closest to her youngest sibling and otherwise mildly to really dislikes the rest of them because they’re “judgmental fuckers”.

— Her pregnancy was unplanned and happened way too early in her life. She wasn’t 16 and Pregnant material but she didn’t think she’d be almost 20 with a baby on the way either. But rather than terminate the pregnancy, she carried it through and figured she had to turn her life around for once in her life.

—  Single mom. Definitely the chill and unconventional type but she’s a good mom. Has a big chip on her shoulder because of how shitty her mom was to her, so she vowed to never be that shitty to her kid. “Ain’t about being the best, just about not being horrible.” Her words that she lives by.

— Never formally studied to be a pastry chef. Landed a job doing the baked goods at a local restaurant in her hometown and became hella good at it. Over the years became good friends with one of the regular patrons who turned out to be a real Richie Rich and offered her the position of pastry chef at a restaurant she planned to open in LA. Basically how she has her job without the proper credentials. She owes her life to Natalie.

— Has finally made enough money to consider starting her very own ( very small ) business. Though, consider is the key word here. She’s got a kid to worry about so she’s very hesitant to make any risky moves. Moving to LA when Ryder was still a toddler was the riskiest thing she’s done since he was born. Though, she can’t deny that she’s itching for something more challenging lately.

WANTED CONNECTIONS

DRINKING BUDDIES ; She hires a babysitter and lets her child go on sleepovers specifically for this reason. A bitch needs to let loose and no one loves a hard drink more than Jo.

FORMER CO-WORKER ; Back when she first moved to LA and the restaurant was still in its pre-opening stages, she worked a lot of odd jobs on top of working on the menu.

ONE NIGHT STAND ; Sometimes you’re out and things work out. Some dude ( or chick ) she rolled around in bed with and left right after they passed out. 

YOUR ORDER ; Accidentally received your coffee order at Grind Time and now I know you specifically by your coffee order and call you that if/when I see you around.

MOVING IN ; Either you helped her with a couple of boxes when she was moving in two years ago, or she saw you moving in any time during her two year residence and helped you ( along with her kid, of course ).

Open to anything! Let’s brainstorm if none of these float your fancy.

[aki-chan2014]

Amaranthine: second generation headcanon list

And after what feels like forever, here is the Amaranthine second-gen list. I had a lot of ideas for this beyond what I covered in the story, and compiling the list gave me yet more, so as a result there's a bonus section of second genners here that have no role or mention in the story here as well.I might or might not write more fics around this AU that might or might not end up including them, but if you want to know more about a particular kid (or their 3E parent, for that matter!), feel free to drop me an ask or whatever :)

Anyway, I hope you find this list (starting under the cut, as always!)interesting, and here's the link to the original story:   https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11912649/1/Amaranthine

Note 1: Though I've given birth years for all of them, only Kaguya has a birthday listed, because she's the only one who I assigned a specific birthday to.

Note 2: There are some death dates listed for children here, but though there are quite a few in the bonus section that I imagine to have premature deaths, I’ve only made a point of listing the death dates for those who died as children/babies rather than just generally young. This is because for the ones whose premature deaths occur in adulthood, I haven’t decided a year/age they die at, just general circumstances.

Note 3: Something weird happened when I copy-pasted this from word to the post, so though I've tried to neaten it up the fonts and format may be weird.

Main

Rinka Hayami and Ryuunosuke Chiba

Kaguya Hayami, born 20th May, 2031. She is named Kaguya because of her mother’s fear that somehow, she’d turn out to not really belong to her, that she was a loan from the gods to make up for their cruelty in killing Chiba, and that one day she’d have to give her back. Though Kaguya is a warm natured person who gets along with others and expresses her emotions easily, she is as reserved and quiet as both her parents are/were. Though mother and daughter have always gotten on, the night Hayami revealed everything about the past to her marked a new, deeper closeness between them.  Kaguya’s closest childhood/school friends are Iruka and Ageha Akasaka (see below).

  Hinano Kurahashi

Masami Akasaka (former surname Tachibana), born 2023. Her bio parents were childhood friends of her father, and they made him and Hinano her legal guardians, which is how they came to adopt her when she was four and her parents died in an accident. Though she calls them ‘Papa Shinji’ and ‘Mama Hinano’ all her life, she considers them her parents as much as her bio ones, and loves them deeply. Masami is cheerful and happy-go-lucky, and has a wide variety of interests. She goes on to have a large family herself.

Suzume Akasaka, born 2027. Elder twin by fifteen minutes, she’s basically a brown-eyed version of Hinano, except more sparky and argumentative. In elementary and early middle school, she gets into a lot of fights-though usually with good intention-but she grows out of this before she can be labelled a delinquent, much to everyone’s relief.  She adores dogs most of all and thus ends up running a dog shelter.

Tsubame Akasaka, born 2027. Despite being the younger twin, she tends to be the bossier, take-charge one in a way more befitting an older sibling. She loves pranks, especially twin-switch ones, and would have probably gotten along well with Rio in another life, and later on life this translates to a general carefree attitude about life.

Iruka ‘Iru’ Akasaka, born 2030. He often despairs at being the only brother in a bunch of sisters, but on the other hand it means that he is well acquaintance with the quirks and foibles of females and is rarely fazed by anything (though he tends to be the straight man in most social interactions).  This makes him a bit of an oddity amongst his classmates and friends throughout his life, but also leaves them in awe of him. He tries on a variety of careers and eventually settles on training as a teacher and working for The Sanctuary (the school that Megu, Hinano and Hayami eventually make from the old 3E campus once Gakuho Asano dies) once it opens. He goes by his nickname because he finds his actual name a little dorky (“seriously, who wants to be named ‘dolphin’?”)

Ageha ‘Acchan’ Akasaka, born 2032. A precocious reader and quick to pick up mathematical concepts, she ends up skipping a year near the end of elementary school, and ends up in the same year as Kaguya for middle and high school. Physically speaking, she’s the one who resembles her father the most.

 Megu Kataoka

Misa Watanabe (former surname Takechi), born 2036. The elder twin by ten minutes, Misa is fierce and overprotective of her two little brothers, and has always been mature for her age. She is the one that remembers the most of her old parents, and though she has no wish to reconnect with that aspect of her life, she bears the scars in the form of having trouble in letting herself be helped. She develops a passion for the stars and pursues this to become one of the most influential astronomers of her generation.

Manabu Watanabe (former surname Takechi), born 2036. Though he’s technically the quieter twin, Manabu is no less protective or dedicated than his sister is. He eventually goes on to be a policeman and values the justice system highly, so when his mother dies and he receives her letter, the contents don’t sit easy with him. He does eventually reconcile it though, and goes on to work closely with The Sanctuary afterwards.

Yuuma Watanabe (former surname Takechi, no first name before adoption), born 2037. Sweet and imaginative, Yuuma can seem as gentlemanly and kind as his namesake, but a lot more dreamy and sometimes more innocent. He struggles in school most of his life, but works hard and makes it through, and becomes a relatively successful novelist-many of the squad, Isogai included, become fans of his works.

Bonus

 Squad members

Touka Yada

Eriko Sakakibara, born 2020. The unplanned, unwanted consequence of a mission when Yada was 20, Eriko was abandoned and eventually adopted, and knows nothing of her biological mother’s background. Her adoptive parents were not very loving or warm parents and as a result Eriko had a rough, rebellious adolescence which ended in a teenage pregnancy that resulted in her beloved daughter, Marika (who eventually ends up in the first 3E that Megu, Hinano and Hayami teach). This gave Eriko a purpose, and she pulled herself together worked extremely hard to be able to bring her up alone, giving her the love and nurturing that she herself never experienced and eventually becoming the co-owner of a successful cat cafe.

  Takuya Muramatsu

Natsuya Muramatsu, born 2027.Though his brash behaviour and relaxed attitude to dress code make him seem a lot like the stereotypical delinquent in a similar way to how his father appeared, in truth he is a lot more shrewd, sly and smart than that, which makes him the perfect candidate to take over Takuya’s role in the squad when the time comes. 

Shin’ya Muramatsu, born 2028. A quiet guy who goes with the flow and prefers to stay out of conflict, Shin’ya is more than happy to stay behind the scenes and be the cook while Natsuya takes the lead and does most of the squad-related things.

Tomohito Sugino and Yukiko Kanzaki

Nanako Sugino, born 2024, deceased 2027. Though she was unplanned and initially seen as an inconvenience by her parents, she was loved deeply and her death due to a sickness and medical negligence hit both her parents hard. Her memory is often used as a driving motivation behind the squad’s targeting of corrupt medical industries and hospitals (things that contributed to Nanako’s death). Nanako was basically a typical happy three year old who loved fairies and unicorns. She was also notably pretty.

Yuuma Isogai

Megumi Isogai, born 2027. She would have been named ‘Megu’, but her mother thought that was an incomplete name and argued for other alternatives-‘Megumi’ was the compromise in the end, but she is still definitely named for Megu Kataoka. Anyway, she never seems to fit in with her family despite being very much her father’s favourite (she even looks a lot like him, minus the ahoge), and after a childhood of railing against a sheltered upbringing, she runs away from home at the age of 17 and is never heard of again. It is unclear how much she knew of her family’s activities prior to this.

Mayuri Isogai, born 2030. Probably the most docile and compliant of the three Isogai daughters, she is basically the other extreme of having such a sheltered, insular childhood. She goes on to take on a job in one of Yada’s legitimate business ventures, reporting back relevant information to her family and the rest of the squad but otherwise keeping on the right side of the law.  She’s pleasant enough and fiercely loyal to her family, but doesn’t have much of a personality.

Tsumugi Isogai, born 2032. Though she tended to get a little restless from being so coddled, being a Tsumugi never actually minded it that much. She’s generally a chill person, though with a slightly cold streak-she tends to be hurtful in her words and rarely shows much compassion to others apart from her family (except for Megumi, who she always dismisses as ‘causing drama’ whenever she’s mentioned). She goes on to become one of the squad’s main assassins.

Saki Isogai, born 2033. Probably the most relaxed and ‘normal’ of the Isogai siblings, Saki decides on a law-abiding life, though she always stays close to her family-she takes the option of pretending she knows nothing. After all, her upbringing was such that such a thing is plausible. In taking this approach, she proves herself more strategic and calculating than most people around her would give her credit for, especially as she seems so straightforward. Saki is also the only sibling who has inherited the Isogai ahoge.

  Hiroto Maehara

(Note: All of these kids are the result of reckless flings/affairs/one-night stands that occur during, but not related to, various squad missions)

Yuka Yamada, born 2022. Abandoned by her young mother as a toddler, Yuka has a rough, abusive childhood in care and winds up gravitating towards crime as a teenager and running away. Various tricky life events occur before she eventually cleans up her act and gets work at a florists. During one of the rough years, she meets and helps Megumi Isogai, and though their friendship lasts only a few months and they never kept in contact, that time helped to contribute towards Yuka’s subsequent decision to straighten out.

Kimiya Satsuki, born 2025. The result of an affair, Kimiya has no idea that the person he calls ‘Dad’ is not actually his father. He is the second of four children (one older brother, one younger brother, one younger sister), and has a happy childhood in a coastal town, and grows up to run his family inn.

Kazunari Taira, born 2031, deceased 2040. Small for his age, Kazunari was hyperactive and funny and full of plans and ideas. The only child that Maehara actually had a  (distant but still fond) relationship with, Kazunari died in what was disguised as an accident, but was a murder made as a threat to the squad (his mother is oblivious to this truth, thankfully). After his death, Maehara vowed to be a lot more careful in the future so that he didn’t have any more children who could come to such harm.

Anna-Louisa ‘Ally’ Warren (nee Harding), born 2039. Raised in America, Anna had a slightly tough but generally loving childhood, and though she always wondered about her father (especially as her mother couldn’t give many answers beyond the vague), it was not until well into her adult life after a bitter divorce that she was motivated to go to Japan to try and track him down. She did not succeed, but ended up seduced by the culture and decided to make a fresh start there. She ended up working at one of Yada’s legitimate business ventures, and Yada instantly suspected who she could be, but decided to keep it secret from both of them.

   Other non-squad members

Taisei Yoshida

Seiko Yoshida, born 2026. A pretty, popular girl, Seiko always sensed that there’s a part of her father that comes from another sort of world (as she thinks of it), and is the only one of her siblings who is interested in it. As a result, she ends up often helping her father pass on cards from Isogai and things like that, and ends up working for Yuzuki Fuwa in her quest to become a private detective (which she achieves). Childhood friends with the Itou kids (see below), she dates and eventually marries Ichiro, the eldest.

Taichi Yoshida, born 2029. Loud, annoying but ultimately well meaning, he’s basically a typical annoying little brother towards Seiko, and a protective-but-teasing older brother to Ema. He becomes part of a boy band in his late teens until his mid-twenties (he’s quite the good singer), but then when they disband goes to work for his dad’s garage.

Ema Yoshida, born 2032. Otherwise super-girly and basically tiny and sweet and adorable, she surprises everyone by showing an aptitudes for mechanics, and seems to take a little too much pleasure from subverting expectations. She ends up going to the same university as Ageha, and though they end up in a lot of the same classes during their degrees and know each other well as a result, they don’t connect enough for them to realise any connections between their families.

  Sumire Hara

Ichiro Itou, born 2026. A brotherly, caring type who charms everyone he encounters, the handsome Ichiro is pretty much as popular as Seiko and in high school they’re basically the golden couple. He has an odd but deep interest in different types of tea.

Asahi Itou, born 2028. Eldest of the triplets, Asahi is a headstrong, fierce girl who knows what she wants and just aims for it, with little hesitation. A feminist, she’s radical enough in her views as a young girl to rail against the fact that her mother is a housewife, and does not understand why she would be happy with that or how she could choose that. She only gains that understanding as an adult, and thus for a lot of her life her relationship with her mother is tense.

Mahiru Itou, born 2028. Headstrong like Asahi, but more measured than fierce, Mahiru is generally considered the more sensible of the triplets. She eventually goes on to be a criminal lawyer, and has several close brushes with the squad, which causes her mother no end of anxiety, though Sumire never tells her precisely why she keeps begging Mahiru to find another job.

Yuuhi Itou, born 2028. The youngest of the triplets. He’s close friends with Taichi Yoshida, being the quieter, more anxious straight man to Taichi’s impulsive, reckless goofball, and he also joins the band that Taichi joins as a late teen (he plays the drums). When the band splits up, he goes into music production. He struggles with anxiety for a lot of his life, but manages it.

Kaoru Itou, born 2030. Very interested in fashion, Kaoru is flamboyant, imaginative and creative, and loves to make clothes and accessories for his nearest and dearest, and makes a successful career out of it. He moves to Australia as an adult, but visits Japan constantly.

Mirai Itou, born 2037. A surprise child, he’s very much coddled and adored by the rest of his family, and acts a little spoiled because of this. However he’s a hardworking, passionate person, and as someone who never really fits in with the strict educational system (though he does well), he is eventually motivated to also work for The Sanctuary.

  Kirara Hazama

Shiki Nakajima, born and deceased 2027. A stillborn son, his name is written to mean ‘poem’. Though his parents think of him pretty much every day and he is still thought of as part of the family (his name is still on the plaque listing the family’s names outside the Nakajima’s front door), he is not talked about.

Bunko Nakajima, born 2033. A sunny faced, sunny natured girl, nobody can believe that she and Hazama are related when they look at the two of them together. The only feature they appear to share is curly hair, and even that’s a stretch. However, Bunko is just as book obsessed as her mother (and her father, for that matter) and has a similar dark sense of humour and interest/knowledge in the occult and she can be creepy when she wants to be. She starts a book-critique blog called ‘Literary Child’ (which is what her name means) that becomes a hit in the book world.

  Taiga Okajima

Kiyomi Okajima, born 2031. Brash, down to earth, overly blunt and not easily fazed, Kiyomi is not someone you want to challenge. A lesbian, she finds it hilarious that her father’s reaction to her coming out in her teens is to be happy that he can pass down his own porn collection from his adolescence instead of having to find male porn to give to her. Though she does turn it down anyway.

  Karma Akabane

Saito Akabane, born 2028. Physically resembling his father, he is nothing like him personality wise, being a straight-laced, overly serious sort of person who goes onto become a doctor. It horrifies him when he learns of his father’s past and the sort of people his former classmates became, and his struggle to understand it causes a rift in their relationship for a while, but they reconcile when Saito has his own children.

Toshiko Akabane, born 2029. A bit more cheeky and relaxed, Toshiko does seem a lot more like her father, personality wise. Though she’s generally someone who believes in the law, for some reason she finds it easier to accept her father’s past. Witnessing horrible experiences classmates and friends go through, she is eventually motivated to open a women’s shelter, walking away from a shiny government job to achieve this. She allows the squad to refer people they rescue to her.

[teenmomcentral]

16 & Pregnant Episode Summary (via Wikipedia): Maci McKinney (née Bookout) is a 16-year-old girl from Chattanooga, Tennessee, pregnant by her then-boyfriend and later ex-fiancé, Ryan Edwards. Prior to the birth, the episode focuses on Edwards' indifference to the forthcoming baby and his relationship with Bookout. Bookout gave birth to their son, Bentley Cadence Edwards, on October 27, 2008. Following the birth, the episode focuses on Bookout and Edwards' relationship struggles due to Bookout having to carry most of the parenting load. 

Post episode update: After 16 & Pregnant took off, Maci became one of the 4 main girls on Teen Mom OG. She is still to this day one of the favorite girls from the show. Since the show began, Maci has had only a few serious relationships; In 2009, Maci and Ryan are engaged and planning their wedding but call it quits before the end of the year. Maci started dating a guy named Kyle King in 2010, things got serious and Maci ended up moving to Nashville to be closer to Kyle and she attended school there for a while as well. Kyle and Maci break up in February of 2012 because Kyle was sending inappropriate messages to girls on Facebook. Around March of 2012, Maci met a guy named Kyle Regal (a motocross racer) but their romance was short lived as he was not faithful. Maci and Kyle King rekindled their relationship for a few months until they ended their relationship officially in October of 2012. (Kyle King is now married and has a child of his own.) Maci started dating Taylor McKinney in late 2012. Taylor was a motocross racer at the time and a friend of Maci’s friend, they had met a few times before. Taylor lived in Texas and they were in a long term relationship for over a year until Taylor moved down to Chattanooga to live with Maci and Bentley. In December of 2014, Maci announced her second pregnancy (and first child with boyfriend Taylor.) Maci didn’t think she could have anymore kids after finding out she suffered from PCOS. Jayde McKinney was born May 29th, 2015. In the spring of 2015 Maci graduated from Chattanooga State Community College with a degree in Media Technology. Her and Taylor also both completed a business entrepreneur course and got certificates from that. Once receiving those certificates, Maci and Taylor ended up opening their own business together, a clothing line called TTM (Things That Matter.) Their business is still up and running to this day! They even made special shirts and donated ALL of the profits to Houston for Hurricane Harvey! How awesome is that? Huge props to Maci and Taylor for that one! Maci and Taylor bought a very beautiful home together and raise their 3 children and pets there. After 4 long years of being together, Maci announced her engagement to Taylor on January 19th, 2016. Around Feburary 2016, Maci finds out she is pregnant with her 3rd child (2nd with Taylor) and they were both completely shocked. They found out only a few days after Taylor proposed. She says she didn't know she was pregnant until 21 weeks along. She went to the doctor to get on new birth control, and that’s how she found out about baby #3! Maci got a lot of backlash because of her third pregnancy. One of the reasons being that she was drinking before she was pregnant, and didn’t find out until 21 weeks along. Another reason being that she had 2 unplanned pregnancies while she was a spokeswoman for the Candies Foundation to raise awareness against teens having unplanned pregnancies. However, since Maci has a steady income, boyfriend and isn’s a teenager anymore, people were more understanding. May 31st, 2016 Maverick McKinney was born (just 1 year and 2 days away from sister Jayde’s birthday!) On October 8th, 2016 Maci and Taylor tied the knot at a beautiful wedding in Greenville, Florida. Maci has came out with a few books over the past few years; Bulletproof (2015), I Wasn’t Born Bulletproof (2017), and Maci and Taylor’s Wedding Coloring Book (2017.) As for jobs, Taylor no longer works as a motocross racer, he just runs their clothing line TTM. Maci used to tour schools across the country to speak about teen pregnancy. She now works for TTM and also full time in marketing. Maci and Taylor recently talked about the possibility of wanting to adopt or foster children sometime in the future! They say  “If we are able to do that then why would we not?” 

[womenscare]

Abortion Statistics In Florida And USA | Fort Lauderdale Women's Center

ABORTION FACTS AROUND THE WORLD:

1/3 of all pregnancies worldwide are unplanned

Approximately 25% of the world population lives in countries with highly restrictive abortion laws, mostly in Asia, Africa and Latin America

One woman dies every 7 minutes around the world due to an unsafe illegal abortion. Women who undergo illegal abortions are those who are very poor and do not have access to family planning facilities for education and prevention of unwanted pregnancies

Making abortion illegal or legal has no effect on the total number of abortions performed in the world. Making abortion legal dramatically reduces maternal morbidity and mortality.

Nearly 50% of pregnancies that occur yearly are unwanted with nearly ½ of those pregnant women terminating their pregnancy. In essence; 42 million choose to terminate their pregnancy with close to half of those (20 million) being illegal.

Common complications from unsafe abortions are cervical tears, retained pregnancy tissue, severe heavy bleeding, sepsis, uterine perforation, bladder and bowel damage, which can lead to maternal death if patients are not treated in a timely matter. Death may also result from such complications as gas gangrene of the uterus and acute renal failure. The patient can become permanently disabled due to stroke, or septic clots that form in the upper or lower extremities that lead to the necessity for removal. If a patient develops a severe infection it can lead to tubo-ovarian abscess, pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) which may result in a high incidence of infertility and ectopic pregnancy.

Between 10 and 50% of unsafe abortion cases need medical attention but a lot of women delay or decide not to seek medical care. This is because in a lot of countries where it is illegal to have abortions performed, the women who go to the hospital for help will be reported to the local law authorities and are subject to arrest and spending time in jail. The medical staff often refuses to help and will even harass women about their botched abortion. 600,000 maternal deaths occur each year. Seventy thousand (70,000) of those maternal deaths are from the complications of unsafe abortion which represents 12 to 13% percent of maternal deaths. Prior to 1966, Rumania allowed abortions to take place and as a result, maintained a very low maternal death rate. From 1966 to 1989 abortions were made illegal and the maternal mortality rate increased over 10 times compared to the remainder of Europe.

When performed by qualified Physicians and medical personnel appropriately trained about the medical and surgical abortion techniques, it is a relatively safe and necessary procedure. In the United States, for example, the death rate for abortion is currently 0.6 per 100 000 procedures, making it as safe or safer than receiving an injection of penicillin.

FACTS ABOUT ABORTION IN THE UNITED STATES

Incidence of Abortion

Nearly half of all pregnancies among American women are unintended, and 4 in 10 of these are terminated by abortion. 22% of all pregnancies end in abortion.

40% of pregnancies among white women, 69% among blacks and 54% among Hispanics are unintended.

In 2005, 1.21 million abortions were performed, down from 1.31 million in 2000. More than 45 million legal abortions were performed from 1973 through 2005.

Each year, about 2% of women aged 15-44 have an abortion; 47% of them have had at least one previous abortion.

At least half of all American women will face an unintended pregnancy by age 45 and, at current rates; about one-third will have had an abortion.

Over 88% of abortions occur in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. Over half of all abortions in the U.S. occur within the first 8 weeks of pregnancy. 6.7% occur between 13 and 15 weeks, 3.5% occur between 16 and 20 weeks, and 1.1% of abortions occur at 21 weeks or greater.

Today, the number of abortions has declined from a peak of 29.3 per 1000 women aged 15-44 in 1979 to 19.4 per thousand. It has only slowly dropped over the last several years because poor women have not had access to Family Planning Facilities for education and prevention of pregnancy through effective birth control measures.

Who Has Abortions?

Fifty percent of U.S. women obtaining abortion are younger than 25: Women aged 20-24 obtain 33% of all abortions, and teenagers obtain 17%.

37% of abortions occur with black women, 34% with non-Hispanic white women, 22% to Hispanic women and 8% to women of other races.

Women who obtain abortion represent every religious affiliation. 43% of women obtaining abortion identify themselves as Protestant, and 27% as Catholic; and 13% of abortion patients describe themselves as born-again or Evangelical Christians.

Most women receiving abortion (83%) are unmarried. Women who have never married obtain two-thirds of all abortions. 16% are separated, divorced, or widowed. Married women are significantly less likely than unmarried women to resolve unintended pregnancies through abortion. About 60% of abortions are obtained by women who have one or more child.

The abortion rate among women living below the federal poverty level ($9,570.) is per women (below 100% of poverty) is nearly four times that of women above 200% of poverty (112 vs. 29 per 1000 women).

The decision to have an abortion is never simple. The reasons women provide for having an abortion underscores their understanding of the responsibilities of parenthood and family life. Three-fourths of women cite concerns for or responsibility to other individuals; three-fourths say that having a baby would interfere with work, school or the ability to care for dependents; and half say they do not want to be a single parent or are having problems with their husband or partner. Lack of money ranks very high. Many feel the responsible course of action is to wait until their situation is more suited to child rearing; 66% plan to have children when they are older and financially able to provide for a child and/or in a supportive relationship with a partner so their children can have two parents. Others wanted to get pregnant and developed serious medical problems, learned that the fetus had severe abnormalities, or experienced some other personal crisis. Each year, about 13,000 women have abortions because they became pregnant as a result of rape or incest.

Only 1% of women say they have been forced or pressured into having an abortion. There are some women who do not want to continue their pregnancy but are pressured to do so by family members, friends, or fear of social stigma. Pre-abortion counseling is designed to determine whether a woman is fully comfortable with her abortion decision, and if she is not, she is encouraged to wait until she has had a chance to consider her options more fully.

Most women do not later regret their decision to terminate their pregnancy. Relief is the most common emotional response following abortion, and psychological distress appears to be felt the greatest before, rather than after, an abortion.

There are undoubtedly some women who, in hindsight, wish that they had made a different choice and the majority would prefer never to have become pregnant when the circumstances were not right for them. When a wanted pregnancy is ended (for medical reasons) women may experience a sense of loss and grief. As with any major change or decision involving loss, a crisis later in life sometimes leads to a temporary resurfacing of sad feelings surrounding the abortion. Women at risk for post-abortion adjustment are those who do not get the support they need, or whose abortion decisions are actively opposed by people who are close to them.

Contraceptive Use

54% of women having abortions had used a contraceptive method (usually the condom or the pill) during the month they became pregnant. Among those women, 76% of pill users and 49% of condom users report having used their method inconsistently, while 13% of pill users and 14% of condom users report correct use.  Some women used hgh supplements after the abortion for recovery. There is no contraceptive method that can prevent pregnancy 100% of the time.

46% percent of women who have abortion had not used a contraceptive method during the month they became pregnant. Of these women, 33% had perceived themselves to be at low risk for pregnancy, 32% had concerns about contraceptive methods, 26% had unexpected sex and 1% had been forced to have sex.

8% of women who have abortion have never used a method of birth control; non-use is greatest among those who are young, poor, black, Hispanic or less educated.

About half of unintended pregnancies occur among the 11% of women who are at risk for unintended pregnancy but are not using contraceptives. Most of these women have practiced contraception in the past.

Most women who have an abortion have not had one previously (52%) or only one previous abortion (26%). If women used abortion as their primary method of birth control, they would be getting pregnant 2 or 3 times a year. With nearly 30 years of possibly becoming pregnant abortion can’t be used as any woman’s primary source of birth control. There is also a very high likelihood of having one or two unintended pregnancies over a thirty year period of time.

Safety of Abortion

Risk associated with abortion is minimal. Less than 0.3% of abortion patients experience a complication that requires hospitalization.

Abortions performed in the first trimester pose virtually no long-term risk of problems such as infertility, ectopic pregnancy, spontaneous abortion (miscarriage) or birth defect, and little or no risk of preterm or low-birth-weight deliveries.

Following exhaustive reviews, the U.S. and British governments have concluded that there is no association between abortion and breast cancer. There is also no indication that abortion is a risk factor for other cancers.

The risk of death associated with abortion increases with the length of pregnancy, from one death for every one million abortions at or before eight weeks to one per 29,000 at 16-20 weeks, and one per 11,000 at 21 or more weeks. The latter numbers have decreased significantly over the past 10 years due to advancement in abortion surgical procedure techniques and the new medications used to terminate pregnancy.

58% of abortion patients say they would have liked to have had their abortion earlier. Nearly 60% of women who experienced a delay in obtaining an abortion cite the reasons were the time it took to make arrangements and raise money.

Unfortunately, teens are more likely than older women to delay having an abortion until 15 weeks of pregnancy, when the medical risks associated with abortion are significantly higher.

[epcot-anthony]

could you possibly do one where it shows how jas revealed each of her pregnancies to ant???

oooohhh god this is so long.. as always leave feedback & requests!!

———————————————————

Jasmine didn’t know what to do. It felt like the entire world was crashing down on her and she didn’t know what to do.

“Honey what’s wrong?” Renée asked, closing the door to Jasmine and Anthony’s apartment.

She had gotten a text from Jasmine saying “Please come over now.” and immediately rushed over to her sisters apartment.

“Honey..?” Renée walked over to Jasmine, a frown on her face as she took in the young girls appearance.

“He’s gonna hate me!” Jasmine cried.

Her hair was a mess and it was evident she was crying minutes before Renée showed up.

“Jasmine, honey..” Renée trailed off, “Can you tell me hat happened?”

“I’m pregnant!” She blurted out, the room silencing.

“How long have you known..?” Renée asked as she grabbed her younger sisters hand.

“I found out this morning but I don’t know..I must be at least a month pregnant,” She sighed, putting her head in her hands.

“You haven’t told him, have you?” Renée asked, already knowing the answer to the question.

“No. I’m gonna do it tonight but I’m so scared..” She trailed off, worry filling her voice.

“Honey just tell him. He’s going to love you no matter what. He loves kids and you know that. It’ll all work out,” Renée soothed.

Then a hour later Renée was out the door and Jasmine was left to wait for Anthony to get home.

When the door was pushed open and her husbands voice was heard she couldn’t help but smile.

“Hey baby!” He smiled, leaning down to peck her cheek.

“I need to tell you something,” Jasmine said, getting right to the point because she knew she could never wait any longer to tell him.

“Yeah okay,” Anthony nods, “What’s up?” He sat down next to his wife, gently squeezing her hand and pushing a strand of hair out of her face.

“I’m pregnant,” She whispered, her eyes trailing down to her feet in records time.

“You’re pregnant?” His voice dropped to a whisper as the tears filled his eyes, “You’re pregnant!” He exclaimed and kisses his wife quickly.

“You’re not mad..?” Jasmine asked, still somewhat worried that he was going to be mad at her.

“God no! I’m so happy! We’re gonna have a little baby!” He picked Jasmine up, spinning her around and planting a kiss on her lips.

“Yeah we are..” Jasmine smiled, finally realizing that we was actually happy with this news.

Three years after Amelia was born, then came along Mason.

Jasmine found out she was pregnant with Mason a month after the vacation she went on with Anthony for their fifth anniversary.

There wasn’t the total nervousness this time when she told him, just the worry about having another kid.

Even though they had been trying for a kid, it was pretty scary.

Jasmine’s eyes trailed down to the pregnancy test in front of her but before her eyes met the results she quickly turned away.

“I can’t look,” She shook her head and rested her head in her husbands chest.

“I’ll do it..” Anthony suggested, pressing a kiss to his wife’s forehead then leaning forehead to look at the results.

“What is it?” Jasmine asked when she was met with silent.

“It’s positive,” He whispered, looking down at the test in shock.

Having their second child was a process. They had been trying for months and had finally given up and stopped really trying for this kid. But when they stopped trying hard some miracle happened and she had gotten pregnant with their second child.

“I’m pregnant..” Jasmine trailed off as tears flooded her eyes.

“Oh my god. We’re having another one,” Anthony whispered.

Their eyes couldn’t leave the test, the two more than happy that this was happening.

“We’re having a baby!” She giggles as he picked her up and spun her around, just like he had done years before when she found out she was pregnant with their first child.

They only broke the kiss they were engaging in when little footsteps were heard in their room.

“In the bathroom princess!” Anthony called out to their little girls who toddled into the bathroom.

“Mama, daddy!” Mia giggled, looking up at her parents.

“Hi baby,” Jasmine smiled, “I have a surprise for you baby!”

“What it mama!?” Mia jumped up and down, her little curls bouncing all around.

“You’re going to have a little brother or sister,” Jasmine announced, squeezing Anthony’s hand gently.

“Baby..?” Mia asked, her hands immediately pressing to Jasmine’s belly.

“Yeah honey,” Jasmine couldn’t help the tears pooling in her eyes, “Mommy’s having a baby,” Jasmine smiled happily.

“Hi baby,” Mia kissed Jasmine’s belly, “I big sistah..and I wove you! Can’t wait meet you!” She giggles, pressing another kiss to her belly before hugging it.

Jasmine and Anthony couldn’t keep their tears in as they prepared for their little baby to come.

Brooklyn was the most unplanned child of the three but obviously Jasmine and Anthony loved her just the same.

It was when Jasmine was admitted to the hospital with a high fever when they found out.

The two were stuck in a tiny room, their children spending time at their aunts house.

“Jasmine when was the last time you were sexually active..?” The doctor asked, a blush spreading across Jasmine’s cheeks.

“Um..three weeks ago..” Jasmine murmured, her voice trailing off as she avoided eye contact with the doctor.

Jasmine had two children but the question still had her blushing like a teenager.

“Let me check some things,” The doctor noted, walking out of the room and coming back minutes later after some tests had been taken.

“Well you two..I have some news,” The doctor announced, Jasmine and Anthony growing more worried.

“Is everything okay..?” Anthony asked, squeezing his wife’s hand gently.

“More than okay! Congrats you two..Jasmine you’re pregnant,” The doctor announced, a bright smile on her face.

“I’m pregnant..?” Jasmine asked in shock.

“Six weeks pregnant,” The doctor informed her, nodding her head.

“Oh my god..” She mumbled looking up at Anthony who was staring down at her stomach.

“There’s another little baby in there,” He whispered, moving to Jasmine’s side and setting his hands down on her belly.

The doctor had walked out, giving the happy couple a small smile as she watched the moment okay out.

“Yeah there is,” Jasmine smiled.

“This little one wasn’t planned but oh gosh I’m so happy about this..” Anthony pressed a kiss to his wife’s belly.

“Me too. Another one..” Jasmine trailed off as she squeezed Anthony’s hand.

“And the last one. No more.” Jasmine threatened, causing Anthony to burst into laughter.

The couple couldn’t even decide what pregnancy announcement was the best. It was always messy and scary, but that’s what life was. They had their three children and got to watch them grow up and they were forever grateful for that.

[oforcryingoutloud-blog]

Diversity and Oppression Blog Post Assignment

Jill Meyer

Teenage pregnancy as it is portrayed in the media is the topic of analysis that was chosen by the group members. Teenage mothers are stigmatized and viewed unfavorably by our society for the old stereotype that they are lazy welfare queens who made a bad choice and ruined their lives forever by having sex. Unfortunately, there is a lack of policy that works to protect teenage mothers and promote their growth as new mothers. There is also a lack of awareness of how this stereotype is ill-fitting of all teen mothers and how the stigma surrounding teenage pregnancy is potentially harmful to a larger scope of people than just the new mother.

The individual who is most affected by the stigma of teenage pregnancy is the teen mother herself. Individuals also affected include, but are not limited to, her child, her immediate family, her extended family, her friends, and her intimate partner(s). This new mother takes on most of the stigma and prejudice that comes with teen pregnancy. Unfortunately, having to live with this stigma and prejudice could have a severe impact on her emotional health. The new child may experience negativity from disapproving family or community members as some places do not cherish children born out of wedlock. Furthermore, this negativity could progress for many years, as the child cannot escape the stigma that comes with being the unplanned child. The teenager’s immediate and extended family may experience some of the stigma and negative talk that is directed towards pregnant teenagers, but the immediate family will most likely face more of it than other relatives because of their proximity to the teenage mother. The friends of the pregnant teenager could experience parts of the stigma that the girl is experiencing, and this may depend upon how close they are as friends. The negativity surrounding the situation may actually cause her friends to distance themselves from her to be rid of the stigma or turn her friends into individuals to repeat the stigma to her and see her as nothing but a stereotype. The teenager’s partner(s) is/are subject to much of the stigma as well, regardless of whether or not they impregnated her, because she could have been raped by someone else. All of these relationships can be strained by the stigma and provide an unwanted and extra source of stress.

Teenage mothers can experience negative interactions from individuals who disapprove of the pregnancy and these interactions can range from microaggressions, to verbalized insults, to physical altercations. The teenager may hear from their teachers and counselors that their chances of succeeding in life are low and this can negatively impact the new mother’s self esteem. Teenage pregnancy does not equate to a life of nothing, but this idea is perpetuated by society and it does not supply teenage mothers with the confidence and motivation to pursue their dreams during and after pregnancy.

I think the stigmatization of teen mothers was developed due to society valuing the path that leads from receiving an education, to marriage, to then having children. Society values children born under wedlock with two parents to raise them. Ideas that teenage mothers are bad parents and there is a cycle of teen pregnancy keep the stigma alive. The stereotype of teenage mothers is based on poor individuals who cannot afford childcare and are told they need to choose between motherhood and furthering their education and career. Teenage mothers are criticized for staying at home to raise the child because they are using public assistance to survive but they are also criticized for being neglectful if they pursue higher education and a career that they enjoy. This shows how society makes it so that teenage mothers can never “win” and they are always seen as bad and irresponsible mothers. Many people believe that teenage pregnancy is dooming girls to a life of poverty, but it has been shown that poverty is actually a risk factor for teenage pregnancy and these new mothers are just more likely to stay in poverty because they had a child during adolescence (Meade, Kershaw, Ickovics, 2008). This creates the perception of a cycle and perpetuates the idea that teenage pregnancy is an intergenerational problem when in fact poverty is the real issue. However, this “cycle” is not definite, poverty does not always lead to teen pregnancy, and women who gave birth as a teenager have the ability to achieve financial independence and stability in the future. Unfortunately, society does not believe that teenage mothers have that power to overcome adversity, even in the land where we glorify “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps” and making something of yourself when you came from nothing.

I actually have a classmate who gave birth when she was 16. And yet, she still took that AP course, participated in the musical, and graduated with me with Honors. She even started taking college courses in her senior year to get ahead on her degree. Two months ago she earned her B.S. from University at Buffalo and I’m proud to say she will be standing by me as one of my bridesmaids this coming autumn. She did not come from a wealthy origin, but was adopted as a baby and identifies mainly as Black and Hispanic. She is intelligent, charismatic, and radiant. I believe that the media should depict more women like her because she defied every stereotype that has been perpetuated and she overcame so many obstacles. I do not think she is the only “success story” out there and I believe that our society could benefit from hearing how many women are successful today, despite being labeled early on as a teenage mother who will amount to nothing. Maybe if we hear enough of these accounts, our perception of teenage mothers could change for the better.

References

Meade, C. S., Kershaw, T. S., & Ickovics, J. R. (2008). The intergenerational cycle of teenage motherhood: an ecological approach. Health Psychology, 27(4), 419.

[devinsena]

Why I Am A Pro-Life Rape Survivor

With every new year comes another annual controversial March For Life in the streets of D.C. and many other cities across the country, each time sparking outrage and heated dialect between opposing viewpoints. And every year I thoroughly and carefully contemplate where I stand on such a polarizing, yet crucial subject. Despite the accusations of some, I, as well as every other pro-lifer I have met, really do care about all the lives abortion affects; I empathize.

However, as I watched what was once a movement to keep abortions "safe, legal, and rare" become an outright celebration of murdering preborn children, I discovered people really do believe abortion is a human right. And there comes a point where blind empathy is no longer virtuous, and as compassionate as I am, I also aim to be on the right side of history.

Whenever I tell people I am pro-life, the responses vary, especially between people who know my story and people who do not, but the general message is typically the same: how can I, a woman, not be in favor of a woman having control over her own body? Who am I to make a decision that should only be between a woman and her doctor? And, my personal favorite, what if she was raped?

It should be noted according to various sources including the CDC, rape and incest account for somewhere between .8 -1.5 percent of all abortion procedures in the United States. Even though focusing on an extreme exception is an intellectually dishonest argument, I will present my case for each of these questions, beginning with the last.

To some, an opinion about abortion after a rape is only valuable if the individual has been through it herself. I think having such a viewpoint is limiting and unproductive. In any case, I am a survivor of rape. And I do believe my own personal experiences allow me to both sympathize with other survivors and give a new dimension to my own argument against abortion.

My parents raised me Catholic, so I have naturally been pro-life since before I even fully understood what that meant. I was raised to believe life is sacred and sex should be saved for the confines of marriage. My Catholic upbringing certainly played a role in shaping the woman I would come to be, but it is by no means the only factor.

In my early teenage years, I began independently reflecting on my faith. I separated the beliefs I had only as a result of my parents from the values I, as an individual, was growing in my core. After shedding myself of anything that was not my own, I discovered my faith remained; I was not Catholic because it was what my parents told me to be, but because the Church's values aligned almost perfectly with my own. I still knew life to be sacred, and I still believed in the spiritual value of sex. I entered high school wearing a purity ring symbolizing my promise to God I would wait to have sex until marriage.

Despite the jokes made at my expense, my own personal temptations, and constantly being told it was a naive phase, I wore that ring with pride for seven years. I'll give the disbelievers this: I was naive. I had plenty of trials and heartbreak, but I knew nothing of pure evil. The last night I wore it was the night I was raped by another college student. I was 20. The first action I took the next day was buying Plan B. I did not know much about it, but I had heard it only worked to prevent pregnancy, not to terminate an existing one. Because I took it early after the assault, I knew the odds were in my favor, but there was still a possibility that I was carrying my rapist's child. In that month of uncertainty, I looked in the mirror and made the most important decision of my life: if I were pregnant, would I be able to carry the pregnancy to term?

The phrase "you’re only one unplanned pregnancy away from secretly being pro-choice" took on a whole new meaning, but it was wrong about me. Even in the midst of all the trauma and suffering, I knew it was not really a choice between whether or not I was strong enough; it was a choice between who I was and who a monster could make me become.

As tragic and evil as rape is, I realized enduring that tragedy did not give me a free pass to commit another tragedy. One evil does not justify another evil. No matter how much pain and complication rape added to the equation, I knew the result was the same when it came down to it; I would still be killing an innocent child's life — a child who had just as much a right to live as any other preborn child conceived under different circumstances. Carrying the child of your rapist is no easy task. It is a constant mental and physical reminder of a woman’s assault, but the damage I would do to both an innocent life and my own soul would scar me even further. And if my faith was strong enough to pull me through my assault, my faith would be strong enough to carry a pregnancy to term. Looking myself in my reflection's eyes, I put everything in God's hands. I chose life.

As it turned out, I never became pregnant. People sometimes point this out to me as a way of saying it was easy for me because I never actually had to make that choice. I remind them that I did. I chose before I even knew I had to, when my mind was as rational as the circumstances would allow, to give myself time to prepare for all the strength I would need. Because life is sacred. Women are sacred. I am sacred. Had I been pregnant, so too would have been my preborn child, regardless of how he or she was conceived. This firm consistency is the only way to be morally and intellectually honest.

As a woman and a survivor, I firmly believe women should have control over their bodies, especially as it pertains to sex. I will always be a fearless advocate for consent and against sexual violence. However, the fight against abortion is not about a woman's voice or body, but about those of the child.

A preborn baby being unable to survive outside of the womb is no better an argument for abortion than killing a helpless infant because the baby is dependent and the mother is too tired to care for it. When another life is at stake, it is no longer just a matter between a woman and her doctor. Just as with rape, killing another human being is an evil that goes against humanity itself. It is unnatural, and we know this to be true at our deepest core. We have laws to protect us from the threat of other individuals for this very reason.

The question about when life begins is a debate which can go on forever, and the denial preborn babies are in fact, babies will likely always be a cheap justification for abortion. After all, it is much easier to terminate a pregnancy when you dissociate the child from life. But we know for certain that preborn babies are their own beings with their own bodies and their own feelings and DNA. It does not matter whether they are completely dependent on their mothers for survival because, just as it is with babies who are born, they are alive. And they have the same potential for and right to life as we do. If we truly value human life, we must understand it is not our right to murder one another. And in that regard, there is not anything about the pro-choice movement that we have a right to choose at all.

source http://humandefense.com/why-i-am-a-pro-life-rape-survivor/

[haryilove2learn-blog]

Gender and Sexuality Portfolio Post Four: Connection to Popular Culture

Jane the Virgin: Revising the Binary

The goal of this assignment is to search how TV shows, movies, comics, songs, etc. depict stereotypes and gender roles of Latina women in popular culture. In addition, the goal was to also explain how the artifact chosen either retells, revises or rewrites the binary. From the very beginning I knew I wanted to focus on the Latino community since I, myself am a Latina. I thought about focusing on Latina women in the workplace and analyzing the show, Ugly Betty but it wasn’t a topic that I really connected with. I chose to focus on how Latina women are portrayed in the media and after thinking about it, I decided to look into Jane the Virgin. I picked this artifact because I know that it is a show in which the main character is very family oriented and the storyline is based on the life of a young Latina woman who faces a variety of difficulties such as family expectations, family issues and an unplanned pregnancy. I also know a lot of people who have seen this show including my friends, my sisters, my mom and myself. To provide a brief summary about the show, it is about the life of a pious, hard working 23 year-old Latina woman who is artificially inseminated by accident. This life changing event changes her timeline and the way she had her life planned out. The show, Jane the Virgin revises the binary by destroying Latino stereotypes and challenging expectations that are placed for women in society.  

After getting artificially inseminated by accident, Jane is questioned by her family about her promise to stay a virgin until marriage, including her grandma, Alba, who is very passionate about God and Jane. Alba has always been very strict and straightforward with Jane, especially when it comes to her virginity. She gives Jane a white flower and says to her, “look at the flower in your hand Jane. Notice how perfect it is. How pure. Now, mija, crumple it up. Crumple the flower Jane.” After doing so, Alba tells her to try to make it new again but Jane is unable to do so. Very satisfied Alba tells her, “that’s right. You can never go back. And that’s what happens when you lose your VIRGINITY. You can never go back. Never forget that, Jane.” This first scene is very important because it plays a very important role in the life of Jane throughout the show, especially because she has been in a relationship with her boyfriend, Michael, for over two years without any sexual relations. As the audience, we can tell that even though she feels the pressure that as a woman she has to sexually please her boyfriend, she decides not to abide to these expectations. Instead of abiding to these expectations she focuses on her education and the goals she has set for herself. Doing so, encourages the audience, to ask questions such as is the binary useful? Is it appropriate? According to chapter five of Gender Stories, “such questions revise the binary by raising questions for the audiences about the system in which they have been participating” (121).  Jane’s commitment to staying a virgin and not allowing herself to fall under these expectations and pressures as a sexual being helps the audience criticize how women (Latina, white, or black) are portrayed in the media, as overly sexualized.

As I mentioned above, Jane’s boyfriend Michael, plays a significant role in Jane’s life. Although, as he says, he would love to have sex with her he still respects her decision to save herself until marriage and that’s something that Jane loves about him. In episode one, Michael proposes to Jane before finding out she was artificially inseminated on accident. As soon as he finds out he backs out and explains to Jane that he can’t be with her if she decides to have ‘it” because it is not his child. When Jane chooses to have the baby and then give it to the baby’s biological father, Rafael Solano and his wife Petra, Jane knows that she wants to spend the rest of her life with Michael, the love of her life. She unexpectedly surprises him in the office to propose to him. She goes up to him and says, “so instead of telling you the reasons why I love you, I’m gonna tell you the reasons why I don’t. I don't love you because you’re smart and kind. I don’t love you because you’re hard-working and competitive and way too defensive (the other officers laugh). I don't love you because you’re incredibly sexy (the officers laugh again).  I love you because you’re my best friend. And I want to grow old with you. And right now, I’m confused about every single thing in my life… except you… (the officers applaud and cheer). What is so special about this scene is the way everything is set up. Michael is an officer and as soon as Jane walks into the office the audience can see that every single officer in the room is a man. This scene makes me question why there isn’t a single women in the room except Jane but at the same time it also makes me realize how confident Jane is walking into that room as a Latina woman. Seeing the way she walked into the room, in front of all those male officers encourages me to be confident as a woman. Not only that but she also motivates me to contemplate the binary by the way she challenges it. By proposing to Michael, as the woman, she, “suggests that there are multiple ways of being a man and a woman- ways that expand the prescription of the binary” (124) according to Gender Stories. Not only that but she also sets an example to all the male officers by showing them that a woman is capable of anything, such as being able to walk into a room full of men and proposing to the love of her life.

It is very important to know that Xiomara, Jane’s mom had her at a very young age. After letting her baby’s father know she was expecting, he leaves her and is out of the picture until he decides to come back. In episode two, Rogelio de la Vega, Jane’s father also a very famous telenovela star wants to finally meet her. After many nonstop calls and very pushy demands to let him meet Jane, Xiomara has a hard time telling him no, that it is not the appropriate time. Rogelio not only questions her role as a mother but feels like he has the right to demand her to introduce them after he has not been a father figure in Jane’s life since she was born.  On top of that, he decides to show up at their house, at a very bad timing, without asking Xiomara if it was okay for him to be there. Xiomara tired of him not being understanding but demanding has had enough and is finally able to stand firm after he once again, very angrily, tells her that he want to see Jane right away. After being too nice and way too patient she responds to him with, “no you won't, because being a parent means that you put your kids interests first and right now, Jane is overwhelmed, and she needs some part of her life to not change, and so you’re gonna back off until I tell you she’s ready. And don’t ever question me as a mother again, got it?” Very scared, Rogelio backs away and tells her that he will wait. Xiomara’s response makes the audience question what Xiomara’s anger is all about. In some way it questions the binary. In Gender Stories, we learned that “best sellers also offer you gender stories that revise the binary- stories that stretch or modify it in some way. The binary stays in place, but it is challenged and expanded in these revisionist narratives” (121). Xiomara’s response is the appropriate response because she didn’t have a choice but to take the role of a mother and a father from a very young age, while Rogelio very easily walked away. He left her alone with their baby and didn’t help raise Jane emotionally or financially. This lets the audience see how despite doing it alone, Xiomara, as a young Latina mom was able to to raise her daughter without the presence of a man. She was a strong, independent woman and that is something that women need to be given credit for more often. Xiomara did not let Rogelio control the situation because she cared so much about Jane that she was not afraid to stand tall and give him a firm response. If she had not done so, Rogelio would have still kept calling her non stop, demanding everything from her while still having the audacity to call her a bad mother.

To conclude, Jane the Virgin revises the binary by destroying Latino stereotypes and challenging expectations for women. First, Jane the Virgin encourages the audience to question the binary by pushing them to ask questions about the way all women, Latinas and non-hispanic alike- are portrayed. Jane is committed to saving herself until marriage and this depicts how TV shows don’t always need to portray women as sexual beings. Jane is allowed to exhibit a nuanced sexuality, embracing her desires while still managing to stay true to her personal wish to remain a virgin until marriage. This is an example of how it is not necessary to over sexualized women like the media is so used to doing so. Second, women are capable of anything, this include doing things that according to society, are usually meant to be done by men, in this case proposing. Jane is a ray of sunshine with the yellow dress she is wearing in this scene. As soon as she walks in, she fills the room with confidence and that is clearly seen even when the room is all men. Third, though Xiomara had Jane as a teenager, she is not a one-dimensional, Latina teen mom stereotype, and her pregnancy has not defined her life. She was shaped by having had her daughter at a young age, but it’s hardly all there is to her. She is a strong, independent woman who is not afraid to be firm and stand up for her family and herself. Analyzing this series in a more deeper level has made me realized how much I missed out on the first time I watched it. Rewatching these episodes made me realize how Latinos are portrayed. Not only that but it also made me realize how much I connect to this character at a personal level. Some of the same expectations Jane had are some of the similar expectations that I saw play a role in my life while I was growing up. One of them being how important it is to stay a virgin until marriage. This is something that my parents focused on so much throughout my childhood. Not only that but they used religion as the major reason as to why I had to stay a virgin and hearing the same reasons over and over again was something that I got tired of listening to. Not only that, but I also had to learn to be confident as a Latina women everywhere I went. I still have to do that now. Being a Latina woman in today’s society is not easy. This show taught me that I don’t have to fall under society’s or my parents’ expectations. I am going to focus on my education, my goals, and my happiness because I learned that it is okay to do that. I don't always have to do what other people want me to do and I don’t have to please others. It is okay to focus on myself and do what makes me happy.

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Regret to Redemption

           “She was born into this world out of a beautiful mistake when her mom was just a girl and her dad didn’t stay.” 

            Teenage pregnancy is a pregnancy in female human-beings who are below the age of twenty years. Most people actually know of a teen mom. According to reports, about 500 Filipino teenagers become mothers every day. Teenage pregnancy has been growing and there should be awareness brought to that. 

             What are the most common causes of teenage pregnancy? For one it could be the drug and alcohol usage among the teens which is mostly as a result of peer influence from other teenagers or adults. Alcohol and drugs influence teenagers to indulge in unplanned sexual activities and other risky doings including unprotected sex and this eventually results in teenage pregnancies. 

             In addition, the lack of good education and parental guidance has also contributed to increased teenage pregnancy. The lack of information on sex and sexual activities exposes the teens to risks when they get involved in the sex activities yet they do not have clear understanding about sex. 

            Teen pregnancy should be highly discouraged especially with the effects it brings to the teenage mother and the baby. The teen mother may face complications such as premature labor, medical complication during the pregnancy period, at child birth or after child birth. 

            Many had suffered because of teenage pregnancy. A lot has regretted their choices. But we shouldn’t forget that there are no regrets in life, just lessons. People must spread awareness and nurture responsibility of informing others about relationships and pregnancy. 

           Sometimes, we have to accept the fact that certain things will never go back to the way they used to be. And the only thing we can do is to prevent them from happening in the first place. Let us make a story of regret to redemption.