Celebrities: Rolemodels or Not?

Everyone in the United States is more than aware of the trials and tribulations of Britney Spears. We have all watched a lovely young woman who carried herself as a respectable person disintegrate into a young woman that most of us would not even want to acknowledge that we know her or of her. Just when it seemed things could not get any worse, now we have the bombshell that younger sister Jamie Lynn Spears is now pregnant. Once again, we have a situation of a young woman who supposedly maintained wholesome values ending up in a situation that no teenage girl should be in. Granted, she does seem to be handling her situation with dignity. It seems highly unlikely that she will have an abortion, but then again, she may surprise us and do just that.

Regardless of the choice she makes, the fact remains that she is one of thousands of girls in the United States who are having babies when they themselves are still babies. Yes, a sixteen year old girl or boy is a baby. Most don't have the necessary tools and skills to be a parent, as they are still going through the process of discovering who they are. Most sixteen year olds are worried about getting their driver's license, who they are going to take to junior prom, what latest hot item they are going to buy with the paycheck they got from an afterschool job. Jamie Lynn Spears, while financially quite secure, is like every other teenager: ill-equipped to be a parent, ill-equipped to fully understand the responsibility of a child and the affect it will have on her life. Then again, she could just hire a ton of nannies and carry on with her life as if nothing changed.

One would think that the downward spiral her sister's life has taken would make Jamie Lynn take caution with her own life. But, like all teenagers, she would most likely have told herself that something like this would never happen to her. Now, it is not written in stone that this pregnancy will lead Jamie Lynn down a path of destruction. However, it certainly will make her life a bit more difficult. Instead of being responsible for one person, she will now be responsible for two. And let's not forget the father. At the young age of nineteen, he is also looking at a major change in his life. Instead of being responsible just for himself, he has to think about being responsible for a baby. He has to consider that, through this baby, he will have a permanent connection to Jamie Lynn. Considering the news just broke, we have yet to see what his reaction will be. He could do the honorable thing and stay by her side, or he could hop on the first skateboard and roll right out of the picture. The hope is that he will do the former rather than the latter.

At the end of the day, the bottom line is this: celebrities are not to be looked to as role models. So many young girls have looked up to both Spears girls as examples of what they want to be. They want the fame and the money, but don't always want to do the hard work it takes to accomplish what both have accomplished. They want to adopt the questionable behaviors that both Spears girls have engaged in, without realizing the long-term consequences it will have on their lives. This latest chapter in the Spears family saga is a shining example of why celebrities are not meant to be our role models. They may go through similar situations that the average person goes through. Yet, they have at their disposal solutions that no average person has. They are also, for the most part, allowed to make the poor choices they do, and still be welcomed back into the Hollywood fold. Britney has been in the tabloid magazines and on the tabloid shows for months, with every new occurrence of destructive or obnoxious behavior making front page news. While we are repulsed by it, we still read about it and comment about it, feeding into the concept that, on some unknown level, it is acceptable behavior. However, it was the average young woman living such a disgraceful life, society would have written her off by this point. The same goes for Jamie Lynn. While we are all shocked, most of us will continue to read about and watch for details concerning her pregnancy. When the baby is born, we will all rush to see the pictures in whichever magazine is lucky enough to do those first shots. In essence, we will be condoning their behavior instead of emphasizing the point that it could have been avoided.