teens

Will more teenage girls fall pregnant following Kylie Jenner's birth? We asked four teens.

As most of the world now knows, Kylie Jenner gave birth to a baby girl named Stormi Webster just two weeks ago. In a rather un-Kardashian move, she managed to keep much of her pregnancy under wraps and only officially announced Stormi’s appearance with a written statement followed by an 11-minute highlight reel titled ‘To Our Daughter’ on YouTube.

If you are not one of the 47 million who have already watched the clip, it contains footage of Kylie’s friends and family gushing over what a wonderful mother she will be, as well as plenty of PDAs between Kylie and her baby daddy Travis Scott. While on the one hand it shows Kylie eating burgers and fries like your average hungry pregnant woman, on the other, it shows her lavish collection of neatly catalogued pink clothing and shoes for the yet to be born Stormi.

As a 38-year-old mum of two, I understand the excitement and joy of a pending birth, but I can also see that thanks to Kylie’s extreme wealth, influence and famous family, her experience of having and raising a baby will be very different to the average 20-year-old woman.

stormi webster ????????

A post shared by Kylie (@kyliejenner) on

I also remember what it was like to be 20 and I couldn’t have wanted anything less at her age. I was too busy having a selfishly great time at university drinking two for one Vodka and Cokes and eating Pringles for dinner. Back in the dark ages of the 1990s I didn’t have to worry about seeing influential celebrities’ perfect bottoms, lives and babies on my phone day and night, so I’m simply not sure if and how Kylie’s latest life choice will affect her 103 million Insta-followers and the current generation as a whole.

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I was very interested to talk to four different young women to get their perspective on Kylie Jenner’s huge influence and her newest role as Stormi’s mum:

Self-proclaimed geek girl and gamer Maddie, 14, from Newcastle, knows exactly who Kylie Jenner is, but feels she has limited effect on her or her gaming peers. She recognises how glamorous she makes having a baby seem however, and thinks that for some girls this could have an alluring effect.

LISTEN: As a family who have built their fame in the public eye, do the Kardashian’s have a right to ask for privacy? Post continues after audio.

Clara, 17, also from Newcastle agrees. While she is not a big Kardashian or Jenner fan, she can see the huge impact she has over other girls her age.

“Kylie has a cult-like following who praise her beauty with likes and comments on an endless basis. She is very familiar with her fans, talking to them as if she’s a friend and so they feel as if they know her and have grown up with her by their side. I think that her having a baby and making it seem so appealing, will definitely influence plenty of her fans to want to do the same. I personally can’t imagine anything more terrifying!”

Serena, 17, from Canberra is a big Kylie fan and feels that she is the most relatable of all the Kardashian girls.

“I like Kylie a lot, she seems pretty normal and I thought the ‘To Our Daughter’ clip was really sweet.”

“While I follow Kylie on social media I don’t tend to comment on her posts, I just enjoy seeing her photos and clips but it certainly doesn’t make me want to copy her and have a baby too! I’m happy for her and Travis Scott and it seems like she has a supportive group of friends and family. She has obviously wanted to become a mum for a long time so she’ll probably handle it well and knowing that makes me think she will be okay.”

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Georgia, 16, from Brisbane feels similar but she also has a personal reason for watching Kylie’s journey as a young mum.

“A friend of mine who is only 14 just announced she is pregnant and keeping the baby. She seems happy about it and like Kylie she has a lot of family around her to help out. I think we’ll both be watching Kylie to see how she handles it.

“I am 100 per cent sure that watching Kylie’s YouTube clip does not make me want to have a baby at 20, I have my own ambitions that include going to university to study forensic science. I do however think it is cool to see someone close to my age succeed on her own terms, I love her make up products and I enjoy gawking at her amazing life from afar.”

It’s hard to say what effect Kylie and little Stormi with her on-trend shoe collection will have on the rest of the young population, so for now, I’ll trust these smart young women and wait to see what the statistics say in nine months’ time…

LISTEN: This is why we can’t have nice things… on the latest episode of Mamamia Out Loud the team discuss everything from space, to oBikes and Barnaby Joyce.