Alumna Explores Teen Pregnancy in Book, Film

Vanessa Carlton coos in her new song, “White Houses,” the lamentation, “we grew up way too fast.” At last Thursday’s screening of Inside Out, a documentary about the harsh reality of teen motherhood, the lyrics of this piece of contemporary pop took on a whole new meaning.

Indeed it appears that what it means to grow up fast is to be ignored by mainstream American society if one is a teen mother. According to filmmaker Joanna Lipper ’93, “the body of a pregnant teenager represents an unequivocal reality that conveys issues on economic and social levels that people would rather not confront.”

The screening was accompanied by a panel discussion of Lipper’s new book Growing Up Fast, which expands on the themes of the film. Lipper, a former Lowell House resident and Signet member, documented the lives of six teenagers as they became mothers for the first and sometimes second time in her documentary film Inside Out. Growing Up Fast is the literary documentation of the next three and a half years of those girls and their community members’ lives.

All of the young women live in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where former Harvard professor Carol K. Gilligan was conducting a writing workshop through a program for teen mothers. It was Gilligan who introduced Lipper to the teen moms by inviting her to visit Pittsfield to record the proceedings of her workshop.

After Lipper accepted the invitation, she realized that she couldn’t leave the girls behind without telling their stories. She decided to embark upon a four year journey of following the girls everywhere they went, “using a video camera as Studs Sturkel used a tape recorder.”

The result of the years Lipper lived in Pittsfield, dedicating her life to highlighting the trials of these real life teen mothers is best exemplified by the audience response at the screening. “I almost started crying,” said Kristina Rodriguez, member of the Massachusetts Alliance on Teen Pregnancy.

A former teen mom, Rodriguez felt the reality of the up close and personal view of these mother’s lives reminded her of how she “went around numb,” so ashamed that the first person she told she was pregnant was her doctor in the delivery room.

The approach Lipper took in the making of the film and her new book, which she describes as “looking from the inside, rather than as outsiders,” has obviously affected many viewers. It is recognized as an educational resource as well as a viable piece of work concerning the harsh but true—and often unspoken—reality of teen motherhood.

The film was recently picked up for distribution by one of the largest educational film distributors in North America, crediting Inside Out as a teaching tool for students of all ages across the country.

One of the most valuable lessons offered up by both the film and book is summed up by Liz, a 17-year-old featured in the film: “if you don’t know me, don’t judge me.” The powerful effect of this young woman speaking her mind directly into the camera is precisely what Lipper said she was trying to attain through her work.

Lipper said that another goal of her work was to grant the young women a voice. These are people “accustomed to being marginalized,” she said. “Teen mothers crave [] recognition of their thoughts.” Lipper intended for the film and book to “go beyond stereotype to humanize instead of marginalize” those so often looked down upon in society.

“The United States has the highest adolescent pregnancy rate in the developed world,” proclaims the film’s opening line. Susan Wilkins, the reading’s moderator and board member of the Massachusetts Alliance on Teen Pregnancy, said Lipper’s film and book would make this issue more recognized and accessible to the public.

After thoroughly researching the issue for her book, Lipper discovered that although Pittsfield was once a booming manufacturing base for General Electric (G.E.), globalization and downsizing had brought about the closing of many factories. The result was what she calls “taking the bottom out of the middle class.”

“Increasing unemployment, a dwindling population, crippling budget cuts, a surge in crime and increasing hopelessness along with the influx of crack cocaine and heroin, all combined to make Pittsfield an environment that sustained an epidemic of teen parenthood and a host of other social ills,” Lipper described in a summary of her book.

One of the things which surprised Lipper in the writing of this book was “the universality of the issue.” Though Lipper does not blame companies like G.E., she found that all across the nation towns like Pittsfield were convoluted due to “globalization and downsizing.” In her opinion, the departure of G.E. provides “a backdrop, an atmosphere in which these challenging social and economic conditions exist.”

“In the absence of hope or opportunity,” Lipper explained, these adolescents create some sense successfulness for themselves by forming a family. “No one had ever told them about opportunities to work towards, and there wasn’t really a rite of passage” like going to college, she said. As a result, teen mothers “use the resources they have” to create one for themselves.

Lipper said that one of the main factors which provide the setting for teens to becoming mothers is “not having a viable ambition.” This, she said, is where ambitious Harvard students can help. “Harvard students have so much to offer in energy and passion,” Lipper said, “and they can incite younger generations to hope for change.” This is exactly what these young girls need, starting from an early age.

Mary D’Apice, a member of the Massachusetts Alliance on Teen Pregnancy’s fundraising committee, called the event “eye opening,” adding that she was “very happy to see so many people in the Harvard community interested. “If we can intervene,” D’Apice asserts, “society is going to be better off.” In terms of this event, D’Apice remains optimistic, affirming, “One intervention has a huge ripple effect.”