TOPPENISH, Wash. – When Gaby Rodriguez took off her fake baby belly and revealed to her classmates that for months they had been part of an elaborate social experiment, she did more than force members of her community to examine how they treat pregnant teens — she got the attention of the nation.
The Yakima Herald-Republic detailed the experience of the 17-year-old Rodriguez in a story Wednesday that caught the attention of shows like "Good Morning America" and resonated with viewers of popular teen mom reality shows.
School officials said they and Rodriguez would have no more comment until she returns from a class trip next week. But her action thrust her into a growing conversation.
The profile of teen moms has changed in recent years. Kids on shows like MTV's "Teen Mom" and "16 and Pregnant" have taken spots alongside movie stars on magazine covers.
Three years ago, Bristol Palin was a pregnant 17-year-old introduced to the world during her mother's run for vice president. And today, she has earned hundreds of thousands of dollars as a spokeswoman who works to prevent teen pregnancy.
It seems teen mothers are the talk of the nation. But most experts say more conversation is still needed.
"There is a certain amount of acceptance or apathy around the issue, where we just accept it and it's just something that happens here," said Dr. Jennifer Unger, an obstetrician and gynecologist at the Yakima Valley Farmworkers Clinic in Toppenish, Wash., where Rodriguez revealed her secret Wednesday to a stunned student body at an assembly at Toppenish High School.
Only a handful of people, including her mother, boyfriend and principal, were in on the secret. The rest of the community in this Western-themed city, in central Washington's agricultural Yakima Valley, had no clue.
They were kept in the dark as part of her senior project on stereotyping. The Herald-Republic reported that Rodriguez found that she was treated quite differently when people thought she was pregnant.
Consider a comment read from a notecard during the assembly by her best friend, Saida Cortes, a 17-year-old senior: "Her attitude is changing, and it might be because of the baby or she was always this annoying and I never realized it."
Rodriguez kept track of statements like this over the course of her 6 1/2 month ruse.
"I'm fighting against those stereotypes ... because the reality is I'm not pregnant," she said.
More here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110423/ap_on_re_us/us_fake_teen_pregnancy
The best quote from the article:
Crist also said he didn't think any of his now-grown children would have succeeded with such a project.
"My son's a professional actor," he said, "and I still don't think he could have pulled it off."
Yeah Crist, I'm sure your son couldn't pull off faking a pregnancy either.
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