Review: The Pregnancy Project

The Pregnancy Project by Gaby Rodriguez
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Gaby's mom got pregnant when she was just 14 years old. She wasn't able to finish school, but instead got married to the father of her child and worked many part time jobs to make money. Life was hard for Gaby's mother, and when Gaby came along as child #8, she was already making decisions about her future long before any kid ever does.

Because as much as Gaby loves her family, and all of her nieces and nephews, Gaby is going to finish high school and go to college. She wants to make a change in her life that doesn't follow the same path that the rest of her family did.

During her senior year in high school, every student needs to do a year long project of a subject that means something to them and how to impact the community as a whole. In Gaby's sophomore year, she came up with the perfect project: pretend to be pregnant and report back on how society has treated her differently as a whole. Gaby is a honors student, works hard and is in the top 5% of her class, so being pregnant may or may not changed people's perspective of Gaby. There are many teenage pregnant girls in school, so this project is near and dear to her heart - especially because all of her siblings had children either out of wedlock or during high school.

Throughout this project, Gaby came across a lot of different reactions from the people in her community and Gaby was actually going through a lot of emotions that she didn't expect to go through. It was a very emotional project for Gaby that she will not be able to forget in her lifetime.

I loved this book! I don't read nonfiction novels, but I was so intrigued by this story and that it really happened that I had to read it, and I'm so glad that I did!

Gaby is a brave girl for doing this project. Because of her family history, she got a lot of negative comments from her siblings because they expected more from her than they did when they were growing up. It was good that Gaby had her mom, boyfriend, and her friend Sonja to talk to about things because being ostracized by everyone else was terrible for her. And that made her realize just how important this project was because teenage girls who ARE pregnant go through this treatment everyday by people who used to respect them.

I'm so glad that I didn't let this being a non-fiction novel deter me away from reading it because what Gaby did was so brave and admirable to others who go through this situation. It makes me realize that I don't do nearly as much as I could for people in need and that I should try to do better. Whether that happens, I have no idea, but it does make me think more outside of myself than I have before, and these books are meant to inspire readers and viewers (since there was a Lifetime movie made as well).

I will definitely be recommending this book to other people and maybe even try to read it for my book club to discuss the project that Gaby implemented!

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