Up and Coming Website for Teen Moms

My story is like many other young women’s in the Southeast Wisconsin area, I got pregnant in high school and had no clue what to do after seeing the little blue lines on the pregnancy test. Fortunately because I had an awesome family, encouraging teachers, and a strong support group, I am a preschool teacher, a college student, and a mom to a beautiful daughter.

This adventure I am embarking on started in its own wonderful way. I was researching for a paper I had to write, go figure, and I came across a New York City based blog that was just for teen moms. Awesome, I thought, NYC teen moms have a place to come online. After deviating from my paper research and doing research about Milwaukee I found that there is no online forum for teen moms in the Southeast WI area. Sure, there are mom sites, teen mom organizations, and support groups but nothing written by a teen mom for a teen mom.

Here it is.

Teen Mom MKE is a new website, launching September 7, 2014, for teen and young moms in the Southeast Wisconsin area. The motto, “Uplifting Midwest Teen Moms” is meant to inspire and encourage, not shame and dismiss. The mission is for moms to have an online forum that inspires and encourages and a place to have reliable resources and links to pregnancy prevention, pregnancy, parenthood, education, and career topics.

The website will have many different components:

Pregnancy Prevention: the page discussing female and male birth control options with links to more information.
Pregnancy: a place where information about what to do after taking the in-home test, birthing classes, and myths will be addressed as well as other topics that goes hand in hand with being pregnant. Teen Mom MKE is also partnering with adoption agencies if parenthood is not the route a mom wants to go.
Parenthood: the part of the website focused on after the baby is born. Pointed mainly at moms, there is information about parenting classes, Shaken Baby Syndrome, and more. There is also a special page called Just 4 Dads that has encouraging words and links to dad-focused sites.
Mom of the Month: highlighting any woman who has been involved in the raising of children (teacher, teen mom, experienced mom, foster mom, etc.) will be featured. Her story will contain reflection, wit, or a way to overcome a challenge, all with the intent of inspiring other moms.
Education and Jobs: a section of the website encouraging moms to further their education, high school and college, and offers tips about resume writing and interviewing. There are links to local, national, and government job sites, and links to different local colleges.
There will be two blogs as well on the site. The first blog, The Ugly Duckling Diaries is about transforming beauty and using personal stories to bring out the unique beauty in every woman. The second blog, titled Bon Appetite, has healthy recipes for moms on the go.

I designed Teen Mom MKE for two major reasons. One, teen moms are not just stereotypes and they need to believe that they aren’t a statistic. Two, stemming directly from reason one, teen moms are going to believe a stereotype if that is all they hear. I know from experience that teachers and parents hear the words “I’m pregnant” and the world ends. I stereotyped myself and almost didn’t graduate high school. Teenagers are always hooked into the web. What better way to get into the minds of teenagers who are pregnant and or parenting than via a website.

Again, Teen Mom MKE’s website launches September 7th, in the meantime, check us out on Facebook for Motivation Monday’s, interesting articles, and inspiring stories.