AI summary
Summary of article:
Devon Ellis, a 35-year-old Tennessee grandmother who lost her education due to teen pregnancy and now has her daughter pregnant in high school, has turned to providing support and encouraging others by sharing her experience on social media.
tennessee A woman named Devon Ellis became pregnant when she was in 11th grade. At the time, her family lacked support, so she had to drop out of school to take care of her daughter. Now, her daughter is also pregnant in high school, making her a young grandmother at the age of 35. She helps her daughter in taking care of the child so that her daughter can go to school without any worries.
Ellis told USA TODAY that mothering a child was “very, very hard”. She recalled the situation at that time: “No one encouraged me to stay in school, and no one could help me take care of the child, so I had to take care of her.”
Two years later, Alice gives birth to a child; Both children are now teenagers and she is separated from her high school boyfriend.
Alice tried her best to prevent her children from repeating the mistakes of her youth, but her daughter became pregnant in the 10th grade, causing Alice to become a grandmother at the age of 35.
Recalling the week she found out her daughter was pregnant, Ellis admitted she was “very sad.” She had already discussed sex education and various contraceptive methods with her daughter. She told her daughter that the safest way to avoid pregnancy was to not have sex, but she didn’t mince words, “I understand teenagers, and I was young too.”
federal center for disease control (CDC) data shows that teen birth rates have been declining for decades. Last year, the birth rate fell to a record low of 11.7 per 1,000 girls aged 15 to 19. However, the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) reported that the US teen birth rate is still relatively high among industrialized countries.
When her daughter became pregnant, Alice decided to help, providing the family support she had lacked most in her youth.
Alice helps care for her grandson every morning so her daughter can go to school; Besides this, she has to wake up her 14-year-old son to go to school and also manage the household chores while working at home. While her daughter takes care of the baby after school in the afternoon, Alice prepares dinner, takes a bath, and goes to bed.
Ellis said her daughter is “a very good mother”, but she doesn’t want motherhood to spoil her daughter’s future. “I want to make sure she can take good care of her son, and I also want to make sure she has the resources to become who she wants to be one day.”
Ellis later obtained his High School Equivalency Certificate (GED). She lamented that her life would have been different if someone had supported her in completing high school, so she hoped her daughter would have opportunities she did not have at the time.
After becoming a young grandmother, Alice shared the family life of a single mother and a young grandmother through TikTok, attracting over 90,000 followers and some videos receiving over 1 million views.
Alice initially hoped to rely on the income from running social media to cover daily expenses, but unexpectedly she received support from the community. She said that while she suffered from depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), she often felt “I’m the only one in the world who feels this way.” So, she wants to let others know that she is not alone.
“A lot of women thanked me and I wanted to do something in my life to make other people feel better,” she said.
Summary FAQ
-
After becoming pregnant in the 11th grade, she dropped out of school due to lack of family support. Later her daughter also became pregnant in 10th grade, so she became a grandmother at the age of 35. She now works while taking care of her grandson and helping her daughter complete her studies.
-
Alice helps take care of her grandson every morning so that her daughter can go to school in peace; And then takes care of her daughter in the afternoon after school. She also has to take care of her 14-year-old son, handle household chores and prepare dinner, trying to make up for the lack of support she was receiving at the time.
-
She originally wanted to live only on community income subsidies, but later learned that many people were in a similar situation. She shares the daily life of a single mother and a young grandmother, hoping to let people suffering from depression, anxiety or PTSD know they are not alone.
