After our discussion in class on Monday I started to think of moms in Hollywood and how their images change once they have a baby. One person in particular that has changed in my eyes dramatically is Nicole Richie; having a baby was the last thing that anyone would want for the party girl who’s been in and out of rehab, and was caught driving the wrong way on the freeway. When people first heard Nicole was going to have a baby there was a sense of concern and worry of whether or not her child would be raised properly. She’s proven everyone wrong and since having a baby she has dramatically changed her image by being done with partying, to focus on being a good mother, and is frequently photographed at various charity events. It seems like having a baby for her helped her to find that wake up call to get her life and priorities in order.
On the other hand celebrities obviously shouldn’t stand as a role model for everything they do in life, but they are obviously in the spotlight and people who admire them are going to watch and model their every move. Take for example Jamie Lynn Spears, the young sister of Britney Spears, she accidentally became pregnant at the age of 16. The unfortunate thing for her fans was that they were younger and much more impressionable so trying to help them understand that the Nickelodeon Zoey 101 star was going to have a baby and it wasn’t right was something that many parents were challenged with. The life that these celebrities live after having a baby make it look like it’s no big deal. On the celebrity blog site PopCrunch I came across, “Hollywood Mothers, Jamie Lynn Spears Inspired Massachusetts Teen Pregnancy Pact” and saw a quote from the National Enquire from a 16 year old girl saying that “Jamie Lynn has a baby, and all the magazines make it sound so easy and so much fun…Hollywood glamorizes having babies, and a lot of young girls get seduced by it.” And a few months later this 16 year old was pregnant.
I noticed that I slightly bounced around in between these two celebrities but I found it interesting how a socialite partygoer could completely transform her image to being a mother of two. And how people can be so blind as to think that Jamie Lynn would be a good role model to follow and base their life on.
1 comment:
We do send contradictory messages to young girls - they are often highly sexualized in pop culture but told not to be promiscuous. The Spears family is really a cautionary tale for child stardom.
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