Juno Portrays 'Fairy Tale' Of Pregnant Teen Returning To 'Carefree Adolescence,' Opinion Piece Says

Main Category: Pregnancy / Obstetrics
Also Included In: Pediatrics / Children's Health;  Women's Health / Gynecology;  Psychology / Psychiatry
Article Date: 15 Jan 2008 - 9:00 PST

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The film "Juno," which portrays a pregnant teen and her boyfriend deciding to give her child up for adoption and return to "carefree adolescence," ignores the fact that "surrendering a baby whom you will never know comes with a steep and lifelong cost," Caitlin Flanagan, who is writing a book on the emotional lives of pubescent girls, writes in a New York Times opinion piece (Flanagan, New York Times, 1/13).

Juno in the movie makes an appointment to undergo an abortion, but she ultimately changes her mind and seeks adoptive parents (Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 12/7/07). According to Flanagan, abortion also is not "psychologically or physically simple." To "see a young [girl], faced with the terrible fact of a pregnancy, unscathed by it and completely her old self again was magical," according to Flanagan. Pregnancy "robs a teenager of her girlhood," Flanagan writes, adding that Juno's "comedic and jolly" tone is a "fairy tale" (New York Times, 1/13).

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