Lately, I’ve noticed something unsettling and quietly becoming normal.
I was scrolling through TikTok when I came across a woman proudly announcing that her 14-year-old son had become a father. The comments were mixed with congratulations and concerns. But, most people applauded him and called him responsible and that he was a real man, too mature for his age, something mature men shy away from.
While going through the comments, my thoughts honestly weren't even about the boy. It was about the girl. How old was she? I thought. I also thought of what the pregnancy must have done to her body, her mind, and of course her childhood? And why are we, as a society, becoming so comfortable with this?
Somewhere along the line, we started confusing normalization with acceptance. Teen pregnancy is not new, yes. It has existed for generations, I know that but what feels different now is how casually celebrated it has become online. These are children, still figuring out algebra, still needing permission slips for school trips, suddenly thrust into parenthood, and the internet is cheering. Trust me, there’s a dangerous silence in that applause.
Becoming a parent at 14 is not a flex, nor a trend and it shouldn’t even be content. It is a life-altering responsibility placed on bodies and minds that are still growing.
What worries me most is how platforms like TikTok blur the line between reality and performance. A 30-second video can make teen parenthood look cute, pretty manageable and even glamorous because I sure as hell have seen many other teens in the comments aspiring to be such so they make money off TikTok as people tend to support that kind of stuff. One thing we fail to acknowledge is there’s no algorithm for the sleepless nights, the dropped-out dreams, health risks, emotional toll, financial dependence and trauma that doesn’t fit into a caption.
And when we clap instead of asking questions, we fail these kids twice.
This isn’t about shaming young parents as compassion and support are necessary. Once a child exists, care must follow. But support should never replace prevention and empathy should never silence honesty.
We should be asking harder questions about why children are having children? Where the comprehensive sex education went to, where the adults are and the responsibility being praised instead of protection being demanded.
Celebrating teen parenthood without addressing the systems that failed these children is like applauding survival without acknowledging the fire. A 14-year-old should be worrying about homework, friendships, and discovering who they are, not hospital bills, diapers, and lifelong responsibility.
If society continues to clap instead of pause, to normalize instead of reflect, we risk raising generations who mistake early hardship for maturity and loss of childhood for strength.
Some things shouldn’t be normalized. Some things should make us uncomfortable enough to act. And this is one of them.