Actress Jamie Lynn Spears reflected recently on her teen pregnancy, the pressure she encountered, and the gratitude she experienced in relation to her daughter. Spears, now 32, left her Nickelodeon show, “Zoey 101,” after she became pregnant at just 15 years of age.
“I also look at the fact that when I was not much older than my daughter is now that I became pregnant, and yes, that was something that I took responsibility for the way that made sense for me,” she told former Bachelorette Hannah Brown on the “Better Tomorrow” podcast last week.
“That doesn’t make sense for everyone else but it made sense for me, and the whole world came down and told me I was the worst human alive for doing so and that every young girl whoever watched my show was going to be ruined because of me and my personal decision. I take responsibility – I didn’t want to let anybody down but I had to do what was right for me.”
Live Action News previously noted how Spears said people from her inner circle tried to pressure her into having an abortion.
At another point during the July 26 podcast, Spears said, “I think that the whole world turned on me when I was just 16 because I had decided to make a choice about my body as a young girl and what I wanted to do.”
Brown responded, “It’s just interesting that it’s like we’re not rallying and wanting to help a 16 year old, support someone who is making the decision to bring their baby into the world. I’m all for women having the right to choose what they want to do but it was almost like they were – people were like mad at you for bringing a baby into the world.”
In covering Spear’s comments, Jezebel commented that “[t]he world has never exactly been forgiving of teen starlets who so much as hint at being sexual beings — this was certainly true in the 2000s, when Spears’ pregnancy set off a tabloid maelstrom.”
It isn’t that “the world” doesn’t want teen starlets to act like “sexual beings” as Jezebel claims. Society seems to want teenage girls to dress and act provocatively, but when they get pregnant from having sex, that same society seems shocked and horrified by the pregnancy itself — as was true when Spears became pregnant at 15. The expectation, then, is that the teen will have an abortion.
“I was having the conversation — young girls my age were having sex and I think that people didn’t want that,” Spears explained. “They didn’t want that conversation of like yeah this is going on but a lot of them are just not getting pregnant. I did get pregnant and this is the choice I decided to make. If I would have had an abortion, no one would have known about it but it wouldn’t have changed the fact I decided to have sex.”
Spears was told that having a baby would kill her career, that she was too young, and that her baby was a “problem.” But she refused to give in to the expectation and pressure that she have an abortion.
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According to Spears, after leaving “Zoey 101,” she moved to Mississippi, put herself on a strict budget, and learned to weigh other people’s opinions more than those in the media. Spears also told Brown that she was determined to be a good mom for her daughter Maddie amid the prospect of intense media criticism.
“For the first probably 8-10 years of Maddie’s life was ‘I will not be a bad mother. I will go above and be – it was like obsessive,” she said. “And of course because I love my child and I wanted to be a good mother. But I would not fail. I would not give them that satisfaction. So, even if it was the hardest thing in the whole entire world at times, I was determined to not fail or not to be the mom they said that I was going to be.”
Spears also reflected on the gratitude she felt towards God when her daughter visited the set of her new movie “Zoey 102.”
“Every time somebody gives me a job, they’re giving my little girl something to look up to. They’re taking something and doing something so much bigger … And so I just think overall, it’s a really full circle moment to be able to — when my daughter came on [the] set of Zoey, she was like, ‘Wow, Mom. I can’t believe all of these people are here because of your show, and you did that. I’m so proud of you.’ And I swear to you, that was like the moment where I said, ‘Thank you, God. Thank you so much.’ That moment makes it all worth it. And I just think that that’s really the biggest thing I’ve taken away from all of it is like I remember being that age and isn’t it crazy that now I’m doing Zoey when my daughter is that age?”
Brown concurred and said, “I feel like that is like God’s timing and God’s redemption and allowing you – you have gone through much, and allowing you this sweet moment to share.”
When asked about whether she receives therapy, Spears said, “I pray a lot, I’ve got a lot of faith and I’m not ashamed to say that.”
“You know, I just think that therapy is important though,” she added. “If you don’t have anybody to talk to, I think you’ve got to talk to somebody and really be open and honest in that because that’s one thing I’ve learned … giving into that and letting someone see that and help you have an outside perspective is sometimes crucial to your growth. And so for me, that and being able to pray and … work out a lot.”
