This post is longer than usual, but stick with it. It's a juicy story about a real-life Teen Mom, years before the MTV series and its spin offs.
She was named "Stanley", after her dad: Her dad had wanted a boy.
Her family moved around a lot, finally settling in the then brand new US State, Hawaii. She went to the local college, met the school's first African student and at 18, got pregnant. She married her 25 year old lover in her second trimester.
She was white, he was black. They had premarital sex. Her parents did NOT approve: This was absolutely scandalous in 1960.
Then, she discovered that her husband wasn't who she thought he was. He had a wife and child back in Kenya. Then he left Hawaii to pursue his studies at Harvard, thousands of miles away.
Did Stanley do the standard "Teen Mom" thing, making stupid choices with everyone ending up in trouble with the law and otherwise ruining her life?
No, but she sure had a messy, messy life.
She divorced her wandering first husband and married and Indonesian man. They moved with her young son in Indonesia; Stanley had a daughter with Husband #2.
It didn't work out: They divorced. Stanley sent her son back to Hawaii to get a proper education, not joining him for a full year. She then went back to school at the University of Hawaii, earning a PhD in Anthropology.
She then returned to Indonesia, leaving her son, by then a teenager, to finish school in Hawaii, under her parents' care. Yeah, he had some troubles, he smoked some pot and such.
Stanley's mom returned to work to help pay for her grandson's tuition. Stanley stayed in Indonesia, becoming a pioneer and eventually leader in providing microloans to women in impoverished nations, while her son moved stateside for more education.
WHEW. What a story! Sounds like a disaster, right? Whatever happened to her son, the child of a cad, who got moved around a lot and was raised by a revolving door of parents and grandparents?
Surely, his young adult life was chronicled in tattoo and piercings-covered mug shots, right?
Somehow, teen mom Stanley did something right.
She and her family achieved the ultimate American Dream: Her son is now President of the United States.
Hello, Teen Mom stars! You may screw up but you can still raise your kids right. We're watching you.
But your antics still make us gag.
Excellent, excellent post.
Right on.