“My life is just beginning”

Mon, 17 Nov 2003 23:30:00 +0000

While teen pregnancy rates fell during the 1990s, the national rate is still miles above other industrialized countries. Four out of 10 teens will become pregnant before they are 20. In the South, where 55 percent of schools receive federal funding that prohibits them from endorsing contraception, birthrates are significantly higher than average.

In her new book, "Growing Up Fast," filmmaker Joanna Lipper follows six teenage mothers from the working class town of Pittsfield, Mass. -- Amy, Liz, Colleen, Shayla, Sheri, and Jessica -- over a period of four years as they navigate a rocky adolescence, with a baby (or two) on their hip and a whole lot of baggage. "Growing Up Fast" began as a documentary film by the same name. Asked by psychologist Carol Gilligan to videotape writing workshops she was conducting at a teen parent program in Pittsfield, Lipper was so inspired by the stories she heard that after the six-week program ended, she decided to stick around and get to know the girls -- their problems, their hopes, and their children -- on a deeper level.

My “Sex and the City” bus tour from hell

Thu, 14 Nov 2002 16:23:00 +0000

So what if my midriff never sees the light of day, this belly chain was mine, all mine. Let the woman from Pequannock sulk. I won it fair and square. I know my "Sex and the City" trivia. Besides, any devoted fan would remember what Charlotte and Trey named their private parts in the third season. Ever heard of Rebecca and Schooner? That's like so obvious.

It was the third and final hour of On Location Tours' Sex and the City Tour of Manhattan and I was in no mood for prissy Natasha types. As we reached our final destination, the Plaza Hotel, where Carrie finally left Mr. Big, the only thing I was interested in was telling myself that $63 for two tickets really wasn't that much and that Allison, the good friend I had dragged along, would surely talk to me again sometime before the end of the year. I could see it in her face. This self-proclaimed "hot chick tour," with its hooting at random men, its power shopping, its "diva prayers," had just been too much. I felt it too -- belly chain or no.

This wasn't supposed to happen this way, at least not on my end. Guilty pleasures are my forte. I have swooned over "Survivor," rattled on about Ross and Rachel, gone down on G-string Divas. I have "Pretty in Pink" memorized and have held grudges against people who spell Britney wrong. I mean, she's not all "t" and "a."

Salon.com > Ashley Nelson

“My life is just beginning”

My “Sex and the City” bus tour from hell