Jamie Lynn — Wake Up and Smell the Frappuccino — This Baby Backfired!

If Jamie Lynn Spears somehow thought that having a baby would be a good career move for her — boy has that backfired!

While Nickelodeon hasn't committed to any course of action on the Jamie Lynn front, aside from wishing her the best, her audience is speaking loud and clear.

"Fire her!" That's the message from Star magazine's readers. In a poll on Starmagazine.com, 93% of them are emphatic that she should be fired from the network or that her show, Zoey 101, should be canceled. Over 91% believe it was irresponsible of Jamie Lynn to get pregnant, and 80% say that she never should have broken her baby news by appearing on the cover of a magazine that often pays big bucks for stories. On the contrary, 80% feel that she should have kept it quiet for as long as possible.

I don't believe that Jamie Lynn and her mom, Lynne, anticipated that there would be a virulent lack of sympathy for her situation. They didn't take into account that as the star of Zoey 101, Jamie Lynn was considered a role model for the teens and tweens who watched her show. Overtaxed parents counted on Zoey to deliver wholesome entertainment and even moral lessons. Now those parents feel betrayed and so do their young daughters — Jamie Lynn really let them down!

And Jamie Lynn has no excuse that her fans can empathize with. She isn't underprivileged and she certainly had access to information about birth control. If anything, Jamie Lynn was over-privileged — she had the world at her feet. How many young girls would have loved to be a star on Nickelodeon and would have appreciated that opportunity!

Then there is the issue of appearing to be profiting from the pregnancy — Jamie Lynn and Lynn — I think this is a blaring public relations boo boo! Even if you weren't paid to divulge the scoop, people think you were. The New York Post reported that a publishing source told them that Jamie Lynn was paid $1 million for revealing her news.

All of this makes your audience even less sympathetic. "Get out of show business" — that's what 83% of the Starmagazine.com poll respondents say the Spears family needs to do.

Now of course Jamie Lynn may not really have misguidedly conceived this baby as a career move, though she may have somehow thought that her sister Britney's notoriety was a career plus. After all, Britney seems to think that having a pack of paparazzi on your tail is a better way to promote your new album than the old-fashioned method--touring and making personal appearances.

Instead, the sad truth could be that Jamie Lynn may have been desperately seeking attention by getting pregnant. "She wants a little bit of me" attention, with everything that's going on with Britney like it is," her aunt Chanda McGovern told the New York Post. Another source told the paper that Jamie Lynn is just a child with not a "lick of sense." Boy, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of sense in the clan and those Spears girls sure are "look-at-me" addicts!

The Spears women may also not exactly be telling the whole truth about how "shocked" they were to find out about Jamie Lynn's pregnancy. The official interview version is that they were both "shocked," "shocked" when they learned the news. Hmmm!

#1 How could Jamie Lynn be shocked when she must have known she wasn't using a reliable method of birth control or any birth control at all. And #2, Star magazine ran a story in our August 6th issue saying that Jamie Lynn had had a pregnancy scare and that Lynn Spears had been telling friends in Louisiana that Jamie Lynn thought she was pregnant.

Now, at the very least, if I'm Lynn Spears and I read in Star (and she had to have been made aware of our story) that my 16-year-old daughter had had a pregnancy scare, I would definitely have used this as an opportunity to have a heart-to-heart about what my daughter might be doing with her boyfriend of two years. And I might have noticed that my daughter who lived with me was having morning sickness — she revealed that in her interview. I would have been very concerned about the possibility that she was pregnant on every level — how it would affect her personally and how a pregnancy could also be a career killer. After all, no 16-year-old is properly prepared to raise a child and no 16-year-old with a career as a teen heroine on a teen network is likely to keep her day job.

The fact is that two-thirds of teen moms never even finish high school and only 1.5% get a college degree by the time they are 30. Teen pregnancy in general is far more likely to hurt a girl's career than help it, no matter how many cover stories are written about you.

Follow Bonnie Fuller on Twitter: www.twitter.com/bonniefuller

Comments

[NABNYC]

Man, I love to see the female-haters get all up in a lather about a female having sex. And getting pregnant to boot? How could she get pregnant? (Egg + sperm = pregnant).

How do 16 year old girls get pregnant? Let me count the ways. First, they may live in a society in which even the hint that a 16 year old girl might have sex can lead to her being cast out forever -- the SLUT reject. So they keep telling themselves "Not me, I'm not going to do that."

But then, they're in love, they have urges, they believe no one ever felt like this ... and they have sex exactly like almost every human being on earth has sex. Shocker there. They probably eat, drink, and go to the bathroom too. Perfectly normal, predictable and healthy behaviors that allow us, as a species, to continue to exist. (Don't tell the Christians -- they think it's all virgin births).

Jamie Lynn is pregnant. At 16. What a shame, in most people's view. You have to wonder if the parents spent more time pimping out their daughters than they did teaching the girls to show some restraint. Oh well, too late now. I'd say get an abortion, but of course these good "Christian" families would rather have a child raising a child, which child will probably herself end up being pretty much of a mess.

She's a little girl. WTF is wrong with all these people who are attacking her? She's a little girl who has had some serious consequences to her behavior. Leave her alone and just hope some adult, other than the obviously incompetent parents, can intervene and give her a little direction.

[whinydadchronicle]

"If Jamie Lynn Spears [Bonnie Fuller] somehow thought that having a baby [bloviating at HuffPost] would be a good career move for her — boy has that backfired!"

Whose mind is being changed? Does anyone reading this believe Jamie Lynn Spears (or Bonnie Fuller or anyone) should base her career or life on a message from people who respond to a Starmagazine.com poll?

I know there's no pay for the post. Still, that shouldn't be the only determiner of its worth.

[jimmyaj]

Sounds like none of 'em has "a lick o' sense".

White trash in good circumstances is still trash.

[suki21693]

"Overtaxed parents counted on Zoey to deliver wholesome entertainment and even moral lessons. Now those parents feel betrayed..­."
If any of the parents you described actually exist: Maybe those parents should feel that they have let their kids down by encouraging to turn to television and pop "stars" as role models. Perhaps they should take this as a sign to PARENT THEIR OWN CHILDREN.

"And Jamie Lynn has no excuse that her fans can empathize with."
Jamie Lynn owes you and her "fans" nothing in the way of an excuse. This is her own personal business. Clearly, getting pregnant at 16 is not a good move, but it is one that she has to deal with the consequences of, not you.

What exactly is your investment in this? What is the purpose served by these mean spirited attacks?

[Imzadi]

The Spears are ignorant trailer trash - full stop. Quit covering them and they will move back to their trailer court.

[Synoia]

You are enabling her PR campaign by writing about it.


"There's no such thing as bad PR"...Who'­s quote?

[offred]

And now I've read that Jamie Lynn is going to get her own teen pregnancy reality show. Jamie Lynn will get free designer maternity clothes and baby clothes, be guest of honor at lavish baby showers attended by Disney Channel stars, and do prenatal exercises with trainers to the stars. How many young teens will watch and think, "I want some of that"? Unfortunately, most pregnant teenagers will not be living the good life like Jamie Lynn. Jamie Lynn, girl, this was really a stupid stunt.

[Merlin7]

Jamie-Lynn's condition is consistent with the recently reported study that links a recent upsurge in teen pregnancy to the abstinence-only classes now offered in many schools instead of sex education.

Republican Bible-thumpers took over school boards in many communities, and thousands of young girls are now paying the price for that. The real lesson: Religion is NOT just a harmless belief system. Those wacky ideas have serious consequences.

[flatus]

If we feel that she has earned two names (Jamie Lynne), forcing us to use precious cerebral storage space, well, then I want two names,too.

So... from now on when you see the name Flatus, please think:
Flatus MacAcidoph­ilusnanium­steronavon­.

Thank you.