I want to keep my baby (film)

Synopsis

A 15-year-old girl becomes pregnant by her boyfriend and decides to keep the baby and raise her on her own, instead of initially choosing abortion at the insistence of her boyfriend, or raising the baby at home with her meddling mother.

it was made in 1976.

Confessions of an American girl

Synopsis

Rena and her family travel to the father's prison for the annual family picnic. Things seem to be going just fine, but he eventually becomes abusive and angry. Rena's brother Jay, who is secretly gay, wanders off to tour the prison with another inmate named Buddy. Rena tells her dad that she's pregnant, news which the father does not handle well. When Rena's mother later discovers that her husband is having an affair, they get into a physical fight. When the guards see this they attack him and he stumbles backwards and falls on Rena. Rena rushes to the bathroom, finding that she's bled, and lost the baby. She breaks a picture frame and uses the glass shards to slit her wrists, but Jay saves her just in time.           The movie revolves around a teenage girl named Rena, a dramatically suicidal teenager whose father is serving a long prison sentence. The boy she likes only uses her for sex and other teenage girls tease her relentlessly.

 Madge announces that she is moving the family to Florida. Rena tells her boyfriend about the miscarriage and when he expresses indifference, she causes his prized car to drive into a swimming pool. The end shows the family leaving home for Florida, with Rena's now ex-boyfriend running through the yard screaming at her.

Saved

Saved is a film about a religious girl called Mary who loses her virginity and becomes pregnant. She decides to hide it from her family and friends until she has graduated and before she gives birth. The film follows Mary through her school life and until she gives birth.

links to my play

• All three films follow girls who become pregnant while in school and their decisions on how they will cope with this event in their lives.
• They contain issues about raising a child without the father, being stigmatised for being pregnant and their relationships with others in their lives because of the pregnancy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJjgIKbeTPg

A Taste of Honey

A Taste of Honey is the first play by the British dramatist Shelagh Delaney, written when she was 18. It was initially intended as a novel, but she turned it into a play because she hoped to revitalize British theatre and to address social issues that she felt were not being presented. The play was first premiered at the Theatre Royal Stratford East, on 27 May 1958. The production then transferred to the larger Wyndham's Theatre in the West End on 10 February 1959. The play was adapted into an award-winning film of the same title in 1961.

A Taste of Honey is set in Salford in northwestern England in the 1950s. It tells the story of Jo, a seventeen-year-old working class girl, and her mother, Helen, who is presented as crude and sexually indiscriminate. Helen leaves Jo alone in their new flat after she begins a relationship with Peter, a rich lover who is younger than her. At the same time Jo begins a romantic relationship with Jimmy, a black sailor. He proposes marriage but then goes to sea, leaving Jo pregnant and alone. She finds lodgings with a homosexual acquaintance, Geoffrey, who assumes the role of surrogate father. Helen returns after leaving her lover and the future of Jo's new home is put into question.

A Taste of Honey comments on, and puts into question, class, race, gender and sexual orientation in mid-twentieth century Britain. It became known as a "kitchen sink" play, part of a genre revolutionising British theatre at the time.

It was re broadcast on september 2010, exactly 50 years later on BBC 4.

Links to my play  

the difficulties of a teen pregnancy at a time when children were frowned upon when born out of wedlock. This links to my play as my main character struggles through the stigma of being pregnant from her parents and school friends. Also, the difficulties in having a baby and the father leaves mirrors my play. The daughter in this film follows in her mother's footsteps in that she has a baby in her teenage years as well. This is similar to my plot in which the girl's mother had her young, the only difference being the pregnant teen's mother in my play married the girl's father when she discovered she was pregnant.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00bcqtd

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7LK_-rUfdU

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Taste_of_Honey                            

riding in cars with boys

 

Riding in Cars with Boys is a 2001 film based on the autobiography of the same name by Beverly Donofrio, about a woman who overcame difficulties including being a teen mother to earning a master's degree from the span of 1961 to 1986.
Intelligent but naive Beverly Donofrio a teenager when the movie begins in the early 1960s, dreams of becoming a writer. Some years later, at 15, she and her best friend Fay, go to a party and get drunk. Beverly ends up having sex with a friendly stranger named Ray. She finds out she is pregnant and contemplates having an abortion, but cannot bring herself to do so. Ray feels it would be right to propose to Beverly and professes his love for her, she reluctantly replies the same. At her wedding, her best friend Fay announces she is also pregnant and the two girls, although upset, celebrate the fact they will both have little girls together. As the months go by, the girls realize they are missing out on life, like prom and an education. Beverly and Ray welcome a son named Jason, however, when he is born, Beverly refuses to hold him saying she had a girl, not a boy, and when Ray tells her they have a son, she bursts into tears. Beverly is jealous that she had a boy and Fay got to have a baby girl, Amelia.
 Beverly kicks Ray out after he spends all their money on drugs. Jason hates his mother for making Ray leave and Beverly blames Jason for the way her life has turned out. Beverly and Fay soon turn to selling pot in order to make money, however, Jason (who is still mad at his mother) knows what they are doing and tells his grandfather, who is a cop, and he arrests them. Fay's family bail the girls out under the condition that Fay moves away with her brother and Amelia promising to not see Beverly again. In the present day, Beverly and Jason  are driving to visit Ray to allow his permission to release her novel, which talks about his drug use.
Ray and Jason share a moment where Ray knew the best thing for his son was to leave and Jason knows his mom did the right thing as Ray is still an addict and living in a trailer. Ray signs the papers. Jason is also in a relationship with Amelia . However, Beverly doesn't know, and after a confrontation with his mother in which Jason says that it is her who has always ruined his life , she finally admits how proud she is of him and tells him to go to Amelia, leaving her in the middle of nowhere saying she wants him to be happy.
links to my play

The film is about a teenager who gets pregnant at 15. It is a true story and shows real life situations.

The main character in this film is like the character in my play in that she aspires to have a better life and succeed in a career even when she is pregnant.

This links well to my idea as my character will overcome the same difficulties.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZtIe3fzL8s

Vera Drake

Vera Drake is a film directed by Mike Leigh.

Synopsis

Vera Drake is tirelessly devoted to her family, looking after her husband and children, her elderly mother, and a sick neighbour.  Although Vera and her family do not live lavishly, their strong family bonds hold them together. Vera works as a house cleaner. However, unbeknownst to her family, she also serves as a backroom abortionist. She receives no money for this, believing her help to be an act of generosity. However, her partner Lily a hard-bitten wheeler-dealer, who also carries on a black-market trade in scarce postwar foodstuffs, charges two guineas (GB£48 in 2005) for arranging the abortions, without Vera's knowledge.

After one of her patients nearly dies, Vera is arrested by the police and taken into custody for questioning.  There, she is granted bail of £50 to re-appear in three weeks time. Her son, Sid, is disgusted by his mother's secret activities and tells his father that he doesn't think that he can forgive her. Vera's newly pregnant sister-in-law feels the same way.

Vera is bailed to appear at the Old Bailey in a few weeks time. None of Vera's employers will give her a character reference. Her solicitor thinks she will receive the minimum sentence of 18 months in jail; the judge eventually sentences her to two and a half years imprisonment. This has a devastating effect on all the people who rely on Vera to visit them.

Reviews

'Leigh takes time to show us the daily lives of all characters, giving them more reality than a Hollywood film would think necessary'.

 '
In a hopelessly polarized debate, Leigh allows us to see real people involved in real situations. The film will keep people on either side of the abortion debates talking'.

Links to my play

This film about backroom abortions links to my radio play as it shows the theme of unwanted and unplanned pregnancies.   

Also, the family involved is working class who are on low income, which show class divides. This links to my play as the main characters family is working class and will be a single parent.

Her lack of money and being a single parent is a theme in my play as it shows the struggles of bringing up a child on a small amount of money when you are not entirely ready for the responsibility of a child.

http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1808589417/video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5L3hGxHumY

The Cut

What is The Cut?

The Cut is a fast-paced daily online drama about a group of friends living in London. You can watch daily episodes online every weekday at 5.10pm and get a weekly catch up on BBC Two .
It is an online teenage soap.









http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00n1mcq

Single, together, whatever

BBC Switch series which follows a group of teenagers over a three-month period as they share their most intimate thoughts and feelings about first loves, first times, make-ups and break-ups.

The BBC's teen brand BBC Switch has commissioned independent production company, Firecracker Films, to produce a new six-part observational documentary series which examines teen relationships.

Broadcasted this spring within the Switch zone on BBC Two Single, Together, Whatever gives a unique insight into what young people really think about relationships and love.
The 30-minute episodes follow the ups and downs of the love lives of a diverse group of 14- to 18-year-olds in real-life situations as they flirt, date, get together, break up and experience the emotional rollercoaster of teen romance.
Each episode follows different teens – both couples and singles – as they negotiate relationship minefields and open up on camera about their private thoughts and feelings about love, sex and heartache.
Each show has a different theme and charts the various stages of relationships, from asking someone out for the first time to experiencing life as a couple.

Described as “A sweet antidote to Skins” by the Sunday Times.

Episode Synopsis:

Season 1 Episode 1:

 Will You Go Out with Me?

 Documentary following young people as they navigate their way through the emotional ups and downs of romantic relationships. In this first episode, three single teenagers search for love. Stan is clueless about how to ask out girls, Kaytee cannot figure out if her best male friend wants to go out with her, and musician Mike looks for the right moment to ask a girl to be his girlfriend.

A link to info and clips on this program is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYS28Y36atU

http://www.firecrackerfilms.com/broadcast/stw/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00rw2qz

Juno

The film Juno is relevant to my idea and the issues included could be explored in my play.

Juno is a 2007 comedy-drama film directed by Jason Reitman and written by Diablo Cody. Ellen Page stars as the title character, an independent-minded teenager confronting an unplanned pregnancy and the subsequent events that put pressures of adult life onto her. The film premiered on September 8 at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival, receiving a standing ovation.

The film won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and earned three other Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actress for Page. The film's soundtrack, featuring several songs performed by Kimya Dawson in various guises, was the first number one soundtrack since Dream girls and 20th Century Fox's first number one soundtrack since Titanic. Juno earned back its initial budget of $6.5 million in twenty days, the first nineteen of which were when the film was in limited release. The film has gone on to earn more than 35 times that amount for a total of $231 million, becoming the highest grossing film in distributor Fox Searchlight Pictures’ history.

Juno received numerous positive reviews from critics, many of whom placed the film on their top ten lists for the year. The film has also received both criticism and praise from members of both the pro-life and pro-choice communities regarding its treatment of abortion.

Themes

"You can look at it as a film that celebrates life and celebrates childbirth, or you can look at it as a film about a liberated young girl who makes a choice to continue being liberated. Or you can look at it as some kind of twisted love story, you know, a meditation on maturity."

Diablo Cody Along with Knocked Up and Waitress, two other 2007 films about women facing unplanned pregnancies, Juno was interpreted by some critics as having a pro-life theme. Ann Hulbert of Slate magazine believed that Juno "[undercut] both pro-life and pro-choice purism. Hadley Freeman of The Guardian criticized Juno for a hat-trick of American comedies in the past 12 months that present abortion as unreasonable, or even unthinkable—a telling social sign", though she noted, "I don't believe any of these films is consciously designed to be anti-abortion propaganda."[8] A. O. Scott, writing for The New York Times, agreed that Juno has "an underlying theme, a message that is not anti-abortion but rather pro-adulthood". [9] Ellen Page commented, "What I get most frustrated at is when people call it a pro-life movie, which is just absurd... The most important thing is the choice is there, and the film completely demonstrates that. Cody and Page have openly stated that they are pro-choice; Reitman thought that it was "fantastic" that both pro-life and pro-choice groups were embracing the film. He said that "Juno seems to be a mirror, and people [on both sides] see themselves in it.

The main issues in this are abortion, adoption, alienation and planning for the birth and the life of a child.

the link to the trailer is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0SKf0K3bxg

radio play children in need

CHILDREN IN NEED ALL THE BLOOD IN MY VEINS

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00vy37d

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b00vy37d/Afternoon_Play_Children_in_Need_All_the_Blood_in_My_Veins

This play can help me with my final idea as the narrator is a teenage girl who has more responsibilites than she should at that age. she looks after her mother and younger sister and her house. It shows the strained relationship she has with the mother and talkes on the role of mother for her younger sister. She lives in a poor area and has money for food only. this links to my play as she will have responsibilites before she should when she gets pregnant. The play also gives technical elements like pauses to heighten emotion and fade outs from scene to scene. She also talks about herself in the third person, as if the events of her life are happening to someone else. This is a great narrative device that I could explore in my play. The real life of a young girl links well to my idea and shows a diferent aspect of teens in society.

Also as seen previously i  listened and analysed  the radio play Twilightbaby.com which was about a woman who was pregnant and preparing for the birth of her baby at the late stage in her life.  This mirrors my idea in that a girl is having a baby at the stage in her life she is not prepared for. Twilightbaby also follows the same form as my play will in that, it will listen to the girl's thoughts in first person and third person when hearing events in her life. this will keep the narrative interesting. Twilightbaby is light hearted but my idea will be more dramatic and go through the problems she expereinces in her life.

The link to this is:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00mzzpr

research into chosen idea

MTV 16 and pregnant

16 and pregnant is a MTV reality television series produced by Morgan J. Freeman, and was first broadcast on June 11, 2009. It follows the stories of pregnant teenage girls in high school dealing with the hardships of teenage pregnancy. Each episode features a different teenage girl, with the episode typically beginning when she is 4 ¹⁄₂–8 months into her pregnancy. The episode typically ends when the baby is a few months old. The series is produced in a documentary format, with an animation of an elaborate cartoon depiction on notebook paper of highlights during each episode preceding the commercial breaks.
MTV launched a spin-off series titled Teen Mom, which debuted on December 8, 2009. Season Three of the show is scheduled to begin October 26, 2010, on MTV at 10 PM Eastern.
MTV, in effort to make teen audiences more aware of the problem of teen pregnancy and the difficulties of being a teen mom, developed 16 and Pregnant to follow the pregnancy of six American teens and the births of their children. The show tracked the difficulties the teen girls had with their families and with the fathers of their children, as well as the problems they experienced with finishing school and dealing with peers. With the success of 16 and Pregnant, MTV saw fit to continue to follow the girls into the first year of life as mothers with Teen Mom. This show further explored financial woes and even more family and relationship problems, successfully showing the reality of being a teen parent.

these are links to the show-
http://www.mtv.co.uk/shows/16-and-pregnant
http://www.mtv.co.uk/shows/teen-mom
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLiXS02Mj7U&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cB-LzzDGig&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ng3fo3FPlDc&feature=related



research into chosen idea

Annie's Baby: The Diary of Anonymous, a Pregnant Teenager (book)

Synopsis

In this book Annie, a naive 14 year old, describes her painful relationship with her boyfriend, her unexpected pregnancy, and the birth of her child. Annie pours the truth into her diary. Although I am not(and have never been)as naive as Annie is, this book opened my eyes to the facts about abusive relationships. Annie struggles over the fact that premarital sex is against her values. She loves Danny though and keeps coming back to him, even though he beats her.

When Annie discovers she is pregnant, it makes her situation go from bad to worse. Unable to face the fact for months, Annie does everything possible to keep from seeing her boyfriend. When she gets up the guts to tell her boyfriend, she is faced with the horrible truth: he never loved her at all. Annie's mother supports her mission to have her baby. But when Lil'Annie is born, Annie discovers how hard a baby is. She asks her self this question: Can she really raise her baby?

Review

Teenage Pregnancy,

Growing up around teenage mothers, this book really helped me to understand what they are going through. Anybody, child, parent, sibling, friend, who has a teenage mother or pregnant-about-to-be mother in their life, you should definitely read this book to get a better understanding of their feelings and emotions and how they still do have options.

link to more information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie's_Baby

research into chosen idea

My idea on teen pregnancy has many controversial social issues that could be used to develop the plot.

Teen pregnancy is one of the most difficult experiences a young person might ever face when it interrupts school or other plans. It can create an emotional crisis resulting in feelings of shame and fear, and it may appear that you will crumble under pressures in your environment. The stress of how you are going to break this news to your parents might be even greater, and finding help may seem an impossible task.

Abortion -One of the reasons a woman may opt for abortion is to be free from the burden of raising a child. Time, circumstances, finances, and emotional health may leave them unprepared to consider a pregnancy.

Others may feel pregnancy is an inconvenience. Younger women may consider that they haven't completed their education and realize they still have their whole lives ahead of them. Some feel it will take too much to give a child up for adoption; plus, they are not willing to carry the child for 9 months and go through delivery.

Women who give in to the idea of abortion are often pressured into it by their partners. In many cases, these women find it difficult to choose the life of their child over their partner.

Post-depression in teens

Symptoms include –

Panic attacks and anxiety, Feeling physically ill and having physical symptoms  

Thoughts that you will harm your child or another member of your family either accidentally or deliberately. Feelings that you are a 'bad' mother or a 'bad' person.

A feeling of great sadness and a feeling that since the baby, life is not worth living and nothing gives you joy, not even your new baby. A feeling of numbness and lack of emotion - which also might extend to a lack of feeling for your baby.

 Research shows that post natal depression could be an issue in teens after giving birth and without the support of a partner or a family it could be worse and go unnoticed for a long time. This issue could be explored in my play and it links because she has no support and is a single mother too.

Teenage father

Teen pregnancy can also be hard on teen fathers. The pregnancy can strain their relationships with their girlfriend and with their parents. And teen fathers do not go as far in school and make less money when they get in the job market than teens that do not father children. Even though they are young, they have to face up to adult responsibilities like supporting the mother emotionally and financially during her pregnancy and helping to raise their child. They are financially responsible for their children until their children turn 18.

Earnings

Teen fathers earn less over time than men who have children at an older age. Over time, teen fathers earn 10 to 15 percent less annually than male teens who wait to have children.

Teen fathers are more likely to get involved with criminal behaviour, including alcohol and drug abuse, and drug dealing.

radio idea to take through to production

Looking over the two main choices between idea 3 and 4 I have decided to take idea 3 to production as it has a character in it in my age group which would help me when writing the script and developing her character. i feel this will be easier to write about and i can make it interesting. Also, if it is to be turned into a play i would need to develop the plot which i could do by including the many issues surrounding teen pregnancy. These are issues like negative stigma, disillusion of relationship with father of the child, life choices and decision whether to keep the baby, how to cope with being a teen mother and what help is there for a single teen mother.
The shows i researched inspired me and can help me make it more realistic and more like real life.

radio play ideas

Idea 1

The Genre will be drama.

The play will be about a teenage girl whose mother dies and she starts to rebel. 

 The other characters involved are her father and younger brother.  The Father doesn’t know what to do for her while she is grieving and she begins to pull away from him.

The play will flash from her memories in the past before her mother died to the present and her personal thoughts.

Voice will be first person and third when having conversations.

Research shows for a child/teenager, the death of a parent, without support to manage the effects of the grief, may result in long term psychological harm. Therefore, it is important that the emotions the child feels are worked through completely and discussed openly.

A TV programme on recently is one called Single Father. Although it focuses on the husband’s grief as he loses his wife and has to look after children, it can be related to my idea. This is because the idea about having it from the daughter’s point of view will work and because it has her personal thoughts it will make it more interesting to an audience and relatable. However, as my idea features a teenager who has pulled away from everyone and can’t deal with this death at this point in her life it will be more interesting and the plot could be added to and show the events following the death.

The film Billy Elliot is relevant as he loses his mother and is struggling to get over it; this then leads him to doing the opposite of what his father wants. Also, films like Thirteen and Remember Me both feature a teen that has had a change in their family life or some problem resulting in them acting out or doing things they wouldn’t normally do. This type of plot is very popular and there are lots of films out today that follow this format.

Coming of age genre

A similar type of genre of movies and books is the Coming of age genre where the central plot revolves around a person suddenly facing a life changing experience, trial or tribulation. That person once was naive or childish or pre-pubescent is now suddenly older and wiser because of the experience.

This is related to my idea for a radio play as the main character faces a life changing experience, e.g. a parent’s death. This means she will have to grow up more and deal with the loss. 

Nearly all of them follow people between the ages of 10 and 20 as they go through the experiences which define them. Certain of these experiences, which are upheld as being very important culturally by their repeated portrayals in media, can be classified together as "coming of age events.

It is very popular genre and is seen in films and books in the past and today.

Idea 2

The genre will be a romantic drama.

The play will be about a soldier who meets a woman and they start a relationship.

He then gets called to serve on the front line in Afghanistan and has to leave her.

 They communicate through letters and phone calls while away.

Voice will be third person and first when they communicate through letters.

Research

The Iraq War began as a military campaign that began on March 20, 2003with the invasion of Iraq by a multinational force led by troops from the United States and the United Kingdom.

Prior to the invasion, the governments of the United States and the United Kingdom asserted that the possibility of Iraq employing weapons of mass destruction threatened their security. In 2002, it called for Iraq to completely cooperate with UN weapon inspectors to verify that it was not in possession of weapons of mass destruction. They were given access by Iraq but found no evidence of weapons of mass destruction.

However, the soldiers did not leave and terrorist groups were damaging the country and so the UK became involved in trying to stop these groups.

There was lots of controversy over this decision and many oppose it and still do as it continues today.

Recently there was the Iraq inquiry that questioned Government officials in why they made this decision to invade and why they stayed.

It is estimated that over 1222 British soldiers have been killed in this war, which is why there is so much opposition to the war.

The British soldiers are due to leave Afghanistan by 2014 and leave the country’s soldiers in charge.

The film Dear John is about a soldier who meets a girl and they fall in love but then he has to go away to war. They communicate through letters, and my idea is similar to this. It details what is happening in their lives and other events including issues in the family especially the relationship between father and son.

The film Hurt Locker is about a team of soldiers fighting in the Iraq war. It shows the team on missions in Iraq and is highly Action packed and interesting. The sounds would be good to listen to, to see what would make the play more realistic. Also, the ways the group of soldiers are together give me a better idea of the bond they share.

The film ‘Going the distance’ ties into this idea because the plot revolves around a long distance relationship and how they make it work. They fly to each other on weekends and use phone calls to keep in touch. This would tie into the idea of communicating over a long distance and not seeing each other that often. 

 

 

 These are the links to the trailers of the three films mentioned in my research:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GxSDZc8etg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLkTKkNXDp4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eXDRgEL2AA
                     

Idea 4

Genre will be a drama with elements of comedy.

The play will be about a couple that have been married for 25 years and the children have left home.

They are arguing regularly and are having trouble agreeing on anything.

A friend recommends couples counselling to help them work through their problems.

The husband agrees and they go.

The councillor, after several unsuccessful sessions tells them to write down what happens throughout the week and write why they think the problems are happening.

They use the computer and write down their entries which on then sent to the councillor.

The play details what happens in a brief period of time.

Voice is third Person in conversations and first when writing thought.

There are many films that involve the issue of relationships and their problems and how they resolve them. It is a popular interest in films and can be all different types of genres, from comedy to a tear jerker.

Films like revolutionary Road, 17 again and Bridget Jones all detail some type of relationship.

Some say that the appeal of films and books about relationships is ‘to boost your spirits about marriage or provide valuable lessons about the pitfalls that can ruin a good one’.

Another example is While You Were Sleeping - romantic comedies like this are generally panned by critics because they are formulaic, predictable, and ultimately built on a shaky premise. But not every movie has to be designed for the academy awards, and sometimes the real value of a movie lies in its ability to make you feel good about your values, about love, about the feelings we've all had about relationships from time to time.

Shirley Valentine - this movie appears to be somewhat down on marriage, through the cheeky yet charming performance of long suffering Shirley. But the real point of the movie is about what to do when you're wed locked, and don't want to just give into it as an inevitability of married life.  It details relationship problems when the children move out and relates well to my idea.

                                                                                                                       

Programs like Malcolm in the Middle feature topics and an issue surrounding the family and one episode shows the son making a musical out of his parents’ arguments. This inspired me as I am doing something similar in this idea.

the link to this is

Idea 3
As teenage pregnancy is such a big issue in this country and because single mothers and benefits have been in the news lately I came up with the idea of a radio play that follows a teen pregnancy.


It would be about An  18 year old girl who becomes pregnant who has to put her career plans on hold when she finds out. She will be a single mother and will have minimal support from her family who disapprove.
The play would explore her life and what she feels through her pregnancy.


The research i did to help me and give me more of an idea included films and radio plays with similar content.
 The radio play twilightbaby.com ties in as she is pregnant in an unexpected time of her life and so is the girl in the play as she has to put her career on hold and has little support. i also researched some statistics and information about teen pregnancy.
 The UK has the highest teenage birth rates in Western Europe - twice as high as in Germany, three times as high as in France and six times as high as in the Netherlands.

Teenage pregnancy in the United Kingdom is a long-standing social phenomenon in the UK. The only other western country with comparable teenage pregnancy rates is the United States. Teenage pregnancy is higher in more economically-deprived areas.

A report in 2002 found that around half of all conceptions to under 18s was concentrated among the 30% most deprived population. With only 14% occurring among the 30% least deprived.

Also, the film Juno, mom at 16 and fifteen and pregnant all tie in and show the events that happen in the girls’ lives when they find out they are pregnant. Juno gives her baby away at the end and the others are different as well.

As well as that TV shows like 16 and pregnant, teen mom and underage and pregnant all feature teen pregnancies. They are all reality TV shows done as a documentary style. Two are American and one is on the BBC but they contain information about real girls who have children young. It documents their lives and experiences. In America they especially focus on  teenage pregnancy and make reality TV out of it. Another program called Teen Moms is coming on MTV soon. This could link to my play if i decide to structure it like one of these reality shows but do it as a radio play with focus on her feelings and experiences.

There are several links to websites that have content on teen pregnancy, these are:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4572219.stm
http://www.mtv.com/ontv/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00t6932

These have unbiased, positive help for them.
http://standupgirl.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=69&Itemid=2
http://www.baby-place.com/teen_parents.php
http://www.pregnancystories.net/single_moms/
http://www.teenpregnancy.com/