ABSTRACT
As a group, young mothers are traditionally the objects of other people’s concerns, debates and interventions, the characters in other people’s stories. This chapter outlines a study of four projects that contravene this norm, in that they involve young mothers as agents, delivering sex education to other young people, and through so doing, giving their own accounts of teenage pregnancy and parenthood. Although such projects are unusual in this agential, empowered role that the young mothers play, they have been rising in popularity in Britain; during 2000 and 2001 when the research was conducted, at least 15 examples existed. This is due at least in part to their perceived relevance to the two prongs of the Teenage Pregnancy Strategy for England (Social Exclusion Unit 1999), that is lowering the rates of teenage pregnancy and supporting teenage mothers. As the above quote from a young mother involved in one of the projects indicates, the projects are based on the rationale that young people do not have enough knowledge regarding ‘the realities’ of having a child young to make the best decisions regarding pregnancy and parenthood, an assumption shared by policy-makers:
The reality of bringing up a child, often alone and usually on a low income, is not being brought home to teenagers and they are often quite unprepared for it. They do not know how easy it is to get pregnant, and how hard it is to be a parent.
