Pregnant Girl

April 1, 2021
A memoir and activist call to action from a Black entrepreneur who got pregnant during her senior year of high school. As Lewis notes early on, she never doubted that she was headed for college. She was an excellent student, and both she and her parents had high expectations for her future. However, her whirlwind romance with Rakheim led to an unplanned pregnancy, which she discovered a few months before graduation. As she recounts, her mother was gravely disappointed, and her father was unresponsive. To avoid her parents' disapproval, Lewis moved in with Rakheim, who, despite his troubled past, made her feel loved as "a young woman who belonged to someone special." The author graduated from high school, but a lack of economic opportunity, financial safety nets, and family support meant that the couple struggled with homelessness, food insecurity, and overwhelming poverty. Unfortunately, the combination of economic stress and immaturity turned their relationship toxic, and Lewis had to leave. Throughout her pregnancy and new motherhood, the author never gave up on her dream of attending college, and she went on to excel at the College of William & Mary. After graduation, her experiences made it clear to her what she wanted to do with her life: help other teen parents go to college, just like she did. To that end, she founded a policy and advocacy organization called Generation Hope. "What if we said yes instead of no? That was the guiding star in the design of our program," writes the author, whose voice shines with both vulnerability and wisdom. She does not portray herself simply as a victim or a hero but rather as an ambitious, loving, resourceful, Black single mother constantly fighting systemic racism. Throughout the text, she weaves in context drawn from research and her own personal experiences mentoring teen parents, articulating the racist systems that often keep teen parents uneducated, poor, and desperate. A frank, thoroughly contextualized portrayal of Black teen motherhood.

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April 1, 2021
Though author Lewis was an honors student and had multiple college acceptances when she became pregnant during her senior year, everyone told her that college was no longer an option. After fighting with her parents, Lewis began living with her boyfriend Rakheim, a football star who dealt drugs to earn money. With limited options, she and Rakheim slept on friends' floors and struggled to buy food. After her relationship with Rakheim grew dangerous, Lewis reapplied to college. She started her freshman year as a mom to a three-month-old daughter. Lewis continued to face barriers on campus, such as limited options for childcare and inflexible professors. After earning a master's degree, Lewis' experiences inspired her to found Generation Hope, which supports young parents in the pursuit of higher education. Lewis examines the structural issues that young parents face, such as racial disparities in education and healthcare as well as national policy based on 1990s moral panic around teen pregnancy. Told with empathy and nuance, Pregnant Girl is a remarkable and heart-wrenching memoir from an inspiring leader.

COPYRIGHT(2021) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

April 2, 2021

In her first book, Lewis (founder of the nonprofit Generation Hope) investigates root issues that deter young parents from attending college, through the lens of her own experience. Teen parents in general, and Black teen parents in particular, are discouraged in the U.S. from attending college, Lewis argues, by the GI Bill's replacement with private lending, disconnection from families or communities due to shame, and a lack of role models. Lewis shares that she became pregnant as a high school senior and went on to attend the College of William & Mary. The needs of young parents--including child care, housing, and transportation--are never far from her mind; Lewis writes that these factors can make a significant difference in students' wellbeing and continued success. She introduces the concept of student-parents' "time poverty"-- not an issue of time management, but rather a true deficit of hours in the day to accomplish commuting, working, parenting, and studying. VERDICT Lewis interweaves her own account of being a pregnant teen and her extensive research, to tie proposed solutions directly to facts. A complementary work is Melanie Watkins's Taking My Medicine, although Watkins's book is more memoir than research.--Maria Bagshaw, Elgin Community Coll. Lib., IL

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