The original Teen Mom cast. note
Teen Mom (2009-2021) is a Reality franchise and spinoff of 16 and Pregnant created by MTV that documents the day-to-day lives of several teen moms. The original Teen Mom (later renamed Teen Mom OG), which ran for 9 seasons, focused on four notable 16 and Pregnant Season 1 alumnae, providing insight into their struggles with raising children, reconciling with their families, and embracing their newfound celebrity. Teen Mom has since been spun off into several other shows (despite being a spinoff itself), with each new series featuring a different set of women, typically other 16 and Pregnant alumnae.
Shows under the Teen Mom umbrella:
- Teen Mom aka Teen Mom OG (2009-2021) note
- Teen Mom 2 (2011-2022) note
- Teen Mom 3 (2013) note
- Teen Mom: Young and Pregnant (2018-) note
- Teen Mom: Young Moms Club (2018-2019) note
- Teen Mom: Family Reunion (2022-) note
- Teen Mom: Girl's Night In (2022-) note
Contains examples of:
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: When she's not being verbally abusive or hitting up her daughter for face-lift money, Farrah's mother Deb wears completely inappropriate miniskirts and belly-shirts, shills her line of pasta sauce, and chugs wine while wearing bunny ears.
- Delicate and Sickly:
- Leah's daughter, Allie, suffers from a rare form of muscular dystrophy, and often needs medical treatments.
- Mackenzie from Teen Mom 3 has very severe diabetes, which made her pregnancies very high-risk.
- Disappeared Dad:
- The father of Janelle's son Jace, Andrew Lewis, has only been seen once on the series and even then only on Skype.
- The father of Farrah's daughter Sophia died in a car crash shortly before she was born, but Farrah, to her credit, makes an effort to teach Sophia about him.
- Domestic Abuse: Amber, toward Gary, and much of their arguments are on camera. Likewise, she hits him, too.
- During the 3rd reunion of Teen Mom 2, Andrew admits he did hit Jenelle.
- From Bad to Worse:
- Farrah. First, the father dies in a car crash. She's forced to live with her family, which is less than ideal. Then, we learn her mother is physically abusive. If that wasn't enough, the father's family first tries to prove that he isn't the father and then when the paternity test says he is, immediately sues her for not giving them enough time with the baby. The cherry on top? She wanted an abortion, and it's implied her mother used emotional abuse to make her have the child. How much of this is truth and how much is Manipulative Editing is up to the viewer.
- Jenelle. She went from a misbehaving teenager to a drug addict and frequent inmate of the local jail. She was also diagnosed, to little surprise, as suffering from bipolar disorder.
- Amber. She dealt with a range of issues including depression and lack of education and has admitted that she was on some form of drugs for most of the show's taping. She is out of jail and has her GED at least.
- Glamorous Single Mother: Critics claim that the show portrays the girls this way, but the moms face a number of problems both in and out of the show.
- Good Girls Avoid Abortion: Most of the girls on the show have spoken against abortion, particularly Catelynn, Mackenzie and others. When Briana and her sister both got pregnant at the same time, her sister opted for an abortion, while Briana kept her baby. Farrah had wanted an abortion, but her mother refused to let her get one.
- Mandatory Motherhood: It's implied that some form of this was Farrah's situation, as her mother refused to let her have a termination.
- My Nayme Is: Leah's daughters, Aliannah, Aleeah, and Addalynn. Understandably, as they've gotten older, the girls started to go by Ali, Grace (a middle name), and Addie, respectively.
- Nonchalant Dodge: Amber took a swing at Farrah for her disrespectful comments about her boyfriend, only to discover that Farrah is a bit quicker than Gary.
- Not Blood Siblings: After Catelynn and Tyler started dating, his dad started dating her mom.
- Raised by Grandparents: Jenelle's son Jace is raised his grandmother, Barbara.
