8.27.2010

Teen Vogue shows pregnant 19-year-old on its cover

Teen Vogue shows pregnant 19-year-old on its cover

British model Jourdan Dunn is not visibly pregnant but reveals in an interview inside the US magazine that she is expecting



US magazine Teen Vogue has raised eyebrows by featuring a pregnant model on its cover.
Teen Vogue Jourdan Dunn on the Teen Vogue cover

British 19-year-old Jourdan Dunn is not visibly pregnant in the picture alongside fellow model Chanel Iman but reveals in an interview inside the magazine that she is expecting a baby in December.

Teen Vogue's editor-in-chief, Amy Astley, said the magazine did not find out about Dunn's pregnancy until after the photo shoot but that editors had not considered pulling the cover when they did.

"Teen pregnancy is a difficult, real-life issue that Teen Vogue readers (with an average age of 18) are mature enough to be exposed to," Astley said in a statement.

"Teen Vogue felt it was important to support, not punish, Jourdan Dunn, who contributed to a beautiful photo shoot and who will surely have an ongoing and successful career in fashion."

In her interview, Dunn spoke about how she reacted after learning of her unplanned pregnancy. "All I could think about was what my mom was going to say, my agency, my boyfriend," she said.

"When I told my mom, she started crying and blaming herself. She got pregnant with me at the same age, and she said, 'I don't want you to have to go through what I did'."

Some advocates said the Teen Vogue cover should be used as an opportunity to warn about the problems associated with teenage pregnancies.

"Teen parenting isn't glamorous, even if you are a teen model," Valerie Huber, the executive director of the National Abstinence Education Association, told the Associated Press.

Jill Taylor, chair of the women and gender studies department at Simmons College in Boston, said she would have liked the magazine to provide more information about teenage pregnancies.

"Fourteen and 15-year-olds reading it don't have an idea how hard it is for most single mothers having babies. She's got resources," she said.

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