One in 10 women will become pregnant before age 20. Despite this statistic, the stigma of teen pregnancy stands strong. Teen parents remain the subject of school gossip and often receive little support from their classmates.

Last year, junior Harris Hogue found out his girlfriend at the time was pregnant. Feeling nervous and excited, they welcomed Oliver Hogue into the world almost three months ago as young adults.

“I got a job, quit marching band and put the crib into my room,” Hogue said.

Teenagers who are working, raising a baby, taking care of themselves and trying to keep up in school can become extremely overwhelmed. Hogue and his ex-girlfriend take shifts watching Oliver to try to relieve the other and allow them some time to relax. Even so, the exhaustion still sets in and has affected their lives.

“Me being tired is part of the [reason I] do not do my work and my grades have gone down,” Hogue said.

By taking Pre-AP and AP classes, Hogue is taking steps in order to reach his goals and stays optimistic for his future.

“I am still planning on going to college and doing the same career,” Hogue said. “I want to do something with band.”

Not only is teenage pregnancy difficult for teenagers, but it can affect the child as well. Sophomore Cora Perry’s mother gave birth to her at 16. She worked multiple jobs and lived with her parents until she was able to financially support her daughter. Since she had Perry so young, they created a special bond that not many mothers and daughters have.

“She basically just gave birth to a best friend,” Perry said. “She told me a lot of things she should not have told me, and I told her things that you would not normally tell your mother.“

Living on a tight budget and seeing others who were more fortunate yet so ungrateful made growing up difficult for Perry. It affected her mental health and made her feel like a burden to her grandparents. She began losing hope that she would escape the cycle of poverty.

“It is really hard to get out of that mindset,” Perry said. “But you have to realize that you are not your situation, and that you are more than that. You have to have self-worth and cannot let [your situation] affect you.”

Although Perry has faced hardships, she is working on prospering from her past and embracing it.

“I really see the world a lot differently [than others],” Perry said. “I think that since birth, I never really got that childhood, so I have always kind of acted like the adult. Although it is hard to go through that as a kid, in the long run, I really think that helped me, and I would not be the person I am today.”