Yesterday The Royal Gazette featured Teen Services Outstanding Teen Award nominee China Richardson, 18, who is a top Berkeley Institute student and mother of four-year-old, Kimora. In her fourth year of high school, she wrote a research a paper about teen mothers, society’s perceptions of them, and their success rates. Here it is.Teen Mothers: The Future?“Being a teen mom is not an excuse to become another statistic but rather the reason to redefine the teen mom statistic,” — Natasha Olivera, the founder of ‘Teen Moms Dare to Dream.’Most, if not all, teen mothers are stereotyped as young girls in the community who drop out of school to raise their baby and work at a dead-end job for the rest of their lives. Most people believe these teen mothers do not have any further education from high school or their General Education Diploma (GED). Also, in an ‘attempt’ to show the world the difficulty of being a teen mother, shows like MTV’s ‘Teen Moms’, has only portrayed the statistics to be true, and brought more negativity upon teen mothers. However, there are many teen mothers who do not allow themselves be the societal stereotype.In today’s society, it is thought that if you become a teen mother your life is basically ruined and over. You serve no purpose to the community and only pose as a failure. Typically, when people look at a young teen mother they automatically assume she is not a good mother, and that she most likely has no education because she probably didn’t or doesn’t go to college, yet alone graduated from high school. Nobody believes these young girls can handle parenthood with learning. They believe if you have a child at a young age your only choice is to drop out.In addition, society believes these young mothers are incapable of being a sufficient parent; they do not possess the qualities of a good parent. People believe these mothers are selfish, uneducated and obviously do not make good decisions. How could they be a good parent? Furthermore, these young mothers are expected to work their whole lives at a dead-end job, most likely living on welfare and possibly living in public housing.According to statistics found on Teen Moms Dare to Dream, in the United States; 40 percent of teen mothers graduate from high school. Of that 40 percent, two percent will graduate from college before they’re 30. On the other hand, Teen Services’ collected data for Bermuda that states between the years 2005-2011; 77 percent of the teen mothers were 16 years old or older and 18 percent were under the age of 16. Fifty-six percent of the teen mothers completed their GED and 26 percent completed their Bermuda Secondary School Certificate (BSC) — both groups left their high school and completed their academic programs at Teen Services. In addition, 18 percent of the mothers who were not completing their GED or BSC were either involved in Pre-GED, GED repeats, Pre-GED repeats or middle school.With that being said, the reason for the two varieties of statistics for the United States and Bermuda is due to size of the communities. The United States is a very large country compared to Bermuda. However, Bermuda has the advantage of being such a small and close community because it is easier to know about teen mothers and also to assist and encourage them.Therefore, as seen in statistics, there are not many teen mothers in Bermuda who do not complete high school or complete their GED, because as a small community it is simpler to meet with these teen mothers, get them involved in programmes and assist them with receiving their education so they can have a successful future.Whereas the United States is a large country with 50 states, individual communities and numerous teen mothers; thus making it almost impossible to come into contact with the majority of the teen mothers. In addition, the United States being so large, and Bermuda being so small, teen mothers in the United States have now become normal and the community does not necessarily have programmes set to focus on these teen mothers like Teen Services in Bermuda.MTV started broadcasting a new reality show ‘Teen Moms’ and later ‘Teen Moms 2’, but these shows have not helped changed the image of teen mothers. What MTV has showed is mostly the negative possibilities. For example, the show has young girls who mostly receive their GED and in Teen Moms, one teen mother hadn’t even received her GED. Yet, the audience can see mostly what relationships will turn out to be, especially with the fathers’ of the babies.A positive example might be Natasha Olivera, the founder of Teen Moms Dare to Dream. Another, might be myself. I chose this topic because I am a teen mother who despite having a child has continued my education. I am working towards a successful future. I had my daughter before entering senior school and I promised myself I would continue my education and plans to become an actuary, not just for me but now for my daughter.I’ve been able to remain a high academic student through all four years of senior school and now in my last year I’m on track to graduate with honours. Not all teen mothers can say they were able to do this, nor can all students without children. No, it is not easy all the times, especially with a growing child who depends on you, I can say with the help of my family, friends and teachers who are my support system; they helped show me it was not impossible to receive my education. I’ve managed to balance my life from a mother and a regular teen with a little ease. I’ve focused on my future and kept a positive mindset which is why I am neither a statistic nor a stereotype.There are many teen mothers who do not allow themselves to be the societal stereotype. Teen mothers can finish high school, attend college, and have a career and be successful. The key to having the success teen mothers want is to keep focused on the future and remain motivated. Balancing your life and creating a support system consisting of any and everybody that believes in your success. Building and keeping a positive mindset is most important because you need to be positive and believe in yourself. Teen mothers can have a future.