Adolescent Pregnancy in the Film Juno

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Recommended: Conceptual framework of teenage pregnancy

Juno is a film that depicts adolescent pregnancy and the uncertainty and emotional rollercoaster that most pregnant teenagers go through. The protagonist is a 16 year old girl named Juno who becomes impregnated by her friend Pauly. Unprepared for this surprise, she first considers getting an abortion at a local clinic. At the clinic, Juno is ostracized by the staff's attitudes. They called her sexually active which minimized her emotional state. As a result, she no longer wanted to get an abortion and instead decides to give the baby up for adoption. Juno searches through ads and finds a couple that she thinks would be good parents to her baby. She meets the rich and seemingly perfect couple named Mark and Vanessa and together, they agree to a closed adoption. Juno loves her baby’s father, Pauly, but requests that they remain distant, despite Pauly loving Juno back. She was afraid to let herself be in love. After Pauly asks another girl to the prom, Juno reveals to him how he broke her heart.
Mark tells Juno that he is not ready to be a father and that he wants to accomplish other things in his life. Juno is heartbroken with Mark leaving Vanessa. After talking to her dad, Juno accepts that she loves Pauly and that he loves her back. Juno goes into labor and gives birth to boy. She did not told Pauly about her delivery because she did not want him to miss his track meet. Pauly ends up leaving his race and rushing to the hospital after seeing Juno missing from the crowd. Vanessa arrives and takes Juno’s baby as a single adoptive mother. Pauly comforts Juno as she cries and mourns her loss. In this film, the “problem” of teenage pregnancy is resolved through giving the baby up for adoption to someone who is more capable of giving tha...

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...hasized to me that in more cases than not, the father of the baby does not stay with the mother. Although it is better for the baby to have both parents present in his life, most teenage couples do not stay together as this film would like to have us believe. Most couples do not have the fairytale ending where they live happily ever after like Juno and Pauly. Being kids themselves, having kids and raising them as a teenager is difficult. It is not even easy for grown adults such as Mark who backed away from raising a child. While I have come to learn that pregnancy and the labor and delivery periods are complicated and difficult, I know the hardships do not stop there. Being a parent is a lifetime job, one that requires emotional, mental, economical, and physical stability— all of which lack in most teenagers, thus making most of them unprepared for life as parents.

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