Kayla Carlile

Teen Mom Syndrome Kayla Carlile

Raised by a religious family in Springfield, Oregon, Kayla Carlile found herself pregnant and terrified at the age of fifteen. Dreams of college dissipated, her body began to change, and people's eyes lingered on her in the hallways at school. School administrators sent her to the alternative high school where she was not only the new girl, but the pregnant new girl. This book navigates Kayla's journey from discovering she was pregnant, breaking the news to family and peers, graduating high school as a teen mom, graduating from the University of Oregon, and her experiences beyond college. It explores all of the facets of adult life that are affected by the experience of being a teen mom: having a split identity, relationships with family, dating as a young mother, a desire for family, friendships, access to education, and more. This book is meant to be a breath of fresh air for current and past teenage mothers, to read and see that these unique feelings the author describes as "Teen Mom Syndrome" are shared and that they're not alone. It is an insight to what the life of a teen mother is like because almost everybody knows one, but very few understand them.