Teen Mom Confidential: Secrets & Scandals From MTV's Most Controversial Shows (5 page)

From morning sickness to mood swings, and to even the day of the baby's arrival, we would like you to let us document this exciting, life changing event. Similar to the MTV series True Life or Engaged & Underage, our show will allow these young women to share their story in their own voice.

As time is of the essence, please email me ASAP at [redacted]. Please include what state you are in, your contact details, a picture and why you would want to take part in the series.

Maci, a popular, athletic cheerleader at Ooltewah High School in Chattanooga, Tennessee, was immediately interested. But Sharon remained skeptical. “[She] thought that it was a fake,” the young mom revealed during a speaking engagement at the University of Central Florida in 2011. “So she had my dad come with me to make sure I wouldn't be kidnapped!” The ad, of course, was legit. And
16 and Pregnant
soon became the first show to shine a bright light on a topic that had long been too taboo for television.

For creator Lauren Dolgen a key part of the show's success was the decision to keep the producers' opinions out of the final product. “It's completely from the point of view of the girls who are going through it,” she told Slate.com. But before any stories could be told, producers had to find the right girls, so casting notices were plastered all over pregnancy message boards, MySpace, and anywhere else teen girls might gather online. The search was on for a compelling group of real-life “Junos.”

“The goal was to try to find a typical, middle-class teenager who should have known better,” executive producer Morgan J. Freeman told the
Los Angeles Times
in 2010. “The mandate was 'get the truth. Let's see the real challenges, what pressures it puts on high schoolers, what the sacrifices are.'”

One of the first girls cast was Ebony Jackson of Colorado Springs, Colorado. Just 17 and already engaged, she came to the attention of producers through The Pregnancy Center, a local Christian organization that helps pregnant teens once they decide to keep, and parent, their babies. Ebony was in the first semester of her senior year at Mitchell High School and, though she was pregnant, was determined to remain in the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps. Her hope was to join the military after the baby was born.

Ebony was completely unaware of the nationwide casting call. So was Cleondra Carter - one of 12 girls featured in season three. “I never watched the show after the first season because it just annoyed me to be honest,” she says. “They only showed the downfall of being a teen mom and stuff that a baby can 'take away,' when none of that is true.” Cleondra, just 17 and uninsured when she became pregnant, was actually contacted directly by casting scouts after being referred by a local health center near her home in rural Mississippi.

“This woman named Claudia told them about me because she thought I had a good head on my shoulders,” she remembers. “The next thing I know I have voicemails on my phone from MTV asking if I would be interested. After I found out that I was pregnant, it probably took them like two to three weeks to contact me.”

Amber came to the attention of casting scouts almost by accident. They were hoping to recruit her brother Shawn (and his now ex-wife, Samantha Hall) for a show called
Engaged & Underage
, which followed young couples as they prepared to say, “I do.” “I told them that we were already married and they said, 'that's fine,'” Shawn revealed on his personal blog. “They wanted to do a special with us. [MTV wanted us to] get married and then turn around and tell our families that we had been married for over four months at the time. I told them that they were not going to make a mockery out of my life.”

Months later, another casting director reached out to Hall, asking if she knew anyone who might fit the bill for an upcoming show about teenage pregnancy. She suggested 17-year-old Amber, who was newly pregnant by Shawn's former friend, Gary.

Amber's long, storied history with MTV began - as all the girls' did - with a simple questionnaire. “Then you have to film a day in the life of yourself and include your family and your boyfriend/girlfriend,” season three's Danielle Cunningham explains. “If you make it that far and they're still interested in you then they send out a test shooter and see how you act on camera. [There are] quite a few steps, like five...You have to take a personality test, meet with a counselor who makes sure you're not crazy. There is a background check and then you meet with producers after you are chosen.”

____________________

“I knew it would ruin her life. I wish Amber would have had the same mentality as me [and turned MTV down].”

- SHAWN PORTWOOD
____________________

Shawn - who had been away on deployment to Iraq while the casting process played out in his home - was furious with Amber for going through the entire process and agreeing to participate on the new show. “I knew it would ruin her life,” he wrote. “I wish Amber would have had the same mentality as me [and turned MTV down.]” But she didn't.

Neither did 16 year-old Whitney Purvis, who was living in tight quarters with her grandmother, and mother - who was also pregnant - in Rome, Georgia when she was cast. Purvis said films like “Juno” made pregnancy look “cute” and wanted to show the unfiltered reality of being irresponsible in the bedroom. “You know you don't have to have sex,” she told
ABC News
. “(But) if you do, be smart because this is what happens.”

Producers - eager to explore what happens when girls decide to give their babies up for adoption - also reached out to Bethany Christian Services, a faith-based adoption agency in Grand Rapids, Michigan. There, they discovered Catelynn, a 16-year-old from nearby Algonac, who was considering placing her baby up for adoption. Catelynn submitted the mandatory audition video, much to the shock of Brandon and Theresa Davis - the North Carolina couple that she (and boyfriend Tyler, 16) had already selected to adopt their baby. Though initially nervous to be a part of the series, the couple eventually agreed to allow the adoption process to be filmed.

Q: Did the producers ever try to get you to talk about certain things?
They never told me what to say, just what to talk about. They just wanted me to help catch people up. But there were times I didn't want to talk about certain things, like when Ryan showed up with a hickey on his neck to Miah's birth. I didn't want to talk about that at all and they made me.

Q: Were you allowed to stop them from filming if something was happening that you didn't want shown on TV?
They said they wouldn't put whatever we didn't want [shown] in. But during the “Where Are They Now” special I told them not to show the part where my mom and I are arguing [but they still did.]

Q: How many MTV crewmembers were in the room with you at the hospital while you were giving birth? Did the hospital give them any problems?
One, and they weren't allowed in until I said it was OK. Before the epidural I was feeling really bad. [The hospital didn't give us] any trouble, but I was told I was one of the last births they got to film.

Q: What was your filming schedule like?
They came at like 8 AM and we would film everywhere the director said we needed to. They would leave at like 10 p.m. They came like once a month, and then like three times a month around the end of filming. They would film for about 13 hours a day.

Q: Did you have to call the producers when it was time for the birth and other major events?
Yes, we would call them. If they couldn't fly straight down from New York fast enough, we would film ourselves with a Flip cam. For labor, they stay in a hotel nearby for the two weeks before you're due so they can rush right over when it's time.

Q: What was the downside of exposing your life like this? Do you regret doing the show?
The downside was for sure the negative feedback I get from people. I hate that everyone in the world knows my personal business. I can't even have a Twitter and tweet what I want to tweet because so many people judge.... I try not to regret anything but [I] kind of [do regret it.] But I would still do it all over again, just differently.”

Q: What didn't we see on TV that happened during this time?
A lot! A lot of drama, crying, fights…plus I worked full time while 9 months pregnant. They didn't show any of that which pissed me the hell off.

Q: What were the best and worst parts of your experience?
The best part was that it was basically the chance of a lifetime. I mean, I've been asked for my autograph, how freaking sweet is that? I also gained a new family. I miss my camera crew. The worst parts were that they controlled my life way too much. It was ALL about MTV. They scratched the hardwood floor my dad had just put down with their equipment and didn't care. One time I was in pre-term labor but they wouldn't let my mom take me to the hospital until they got the car lighting just right. It was bullshit!