Tenniya Anderson used to be just another invincible teenager.
Tenniya Anderson: I was too busy running the streets. Being with everybody else, just having fun with my friends and stuff.
That was before she knew about "me time."
Tenniya Anderson: I didn't have "me time" before. I didn't even know what "me time" was. But, now I know because I have to, just to be sane, you know.
"Me time" is the half hour Tenniya takes for herself while her 3-year-old Jordan and one-year-old Jaydan sleep.
Her 17-hour days start and end with her children. Up at 8am, she bathes and dresses them before dropping them off at the Mt. Pleasant child care center a few minutes away. She then picks them up late at night.
Tenniya Anderson: I pick the kids up about 11:45 and I walk down Kinsman to the house. And once we get in if Jordan's hungry I may fix him a sandwich or something because they eat early. They eat dinner early. And then, I put 'em in the bed.
Tenniya is 21 now. She's tall, bashful, and has a youthful giggle. She cleans the bathrooms and lobbies at the Ritz Carlton downtown. Poor, black and single… her family is among the 2 of every 3 Mt Pleasant families headed by single mothers - twice as many as 30 years ago. She gave birth at 17, and then again at 19. She was the first, but not the last, of her girlfriends to get pregnant.
Tenniya Anderson: Right after I had my child, the next one was having theirs. Then the next one was having theirs. There’s only one girl, out of all the girls I used to hang around, that doesn’t have a child. And, she’s working on it right now.
For the first time in 15 years, teen birth rates are actually up this year, according to a new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It's worst among black teens, but up among whites as well. The United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate of any developed country…Research shows that 80 percent of teen mothers end up on welfare and their children are more likely than others to fail at school and when they get older...more likely to engage in crime, and more likely to become a teen parent themselves.
Tenniya says she knew all about the risks of sex. She had sex-ed in school. She talks easily about diseases and condoms. But, in that moment, she ignored all that.
Tenniya Anderson: People get pregnant because they trust their partner. And because they think that it's not going to happen to them. You know so.
Lots of teens think that, says veteran social worker Valerie Hicks. She's director of Kidz Health 2020, a Mt. Pleasant group that offers families parenting classes and youth programs. Hicks says teen pregnancy is up for a lot of reasons: lack of guidance from caring adults, absent fathers, public policy that doesn't support poor families… and, she says…
Valerie Hicks: It almost has become a rite of passage. If your signal into adulthood is not your acquisition of an education or the acquisition of a job, then the signal of your transition into adulthood may become the baby.
The baby, teen pregnancy has become a cultural norm in Mt. Pleasant. It was once a neighborhood of middle-class homes, with both black and white families on almost any block. Now, it's mostly poor and African-American, and among the hardest-hit by the foreclosure crisis. Walking down Kinsman-a major neighborhood artery-boarded up buildings and gated storefronts line the street. All are signs of the decline Tenniya has witnessed.
Tenniya Anderson: We used to see prostitutes. Guys trying to talk to me while I have my kids or maybe while I'm by myself. Just see a lot of drug addicts on corners drinking beer.
Tenniya wants to escape Mt. Pleasant-to keep her kids from going down a similar path as hers. She dropped out of school when her first child was born. But, she plans to teach her children to value an education, to stop the cycle of poverty and teen pregnancy. Now, she's trying to get her GED, and saving money to buy a car. Eventually, she dreams of becoming a nurse or maybe a medical technician.
Tenniya Anderson: I'm trying to do better. All the bad things I did in my life, I'm trying to make it better. I'm trying to give people something to look at, instead of looking at what I used to be in the past.
Today, she's a young woman with a purpose: Her children, and their survival.
Tasha Flournoy, 90.3.