DALLAS — A model on the November cover of Teen Vogue is a 19-year-old who reveals in the magazine that she is pregnant.
Jourdan Dunn is not visibly pregnant on the cover, and Teen Vogue editor-in-chief Amy Astley said the magazine didn’t know about Dunn’s unplanned pregnancy until after the photo shoot. But she said that editors didn’t consider pulling the cover.
“Teen pregnancy is a difficult, real-life issue that Teen Vogue readers (with an average age of 18) are mature enough to be exposed to,” Astley said. “Teen Vogue felt it was important to support, not punish, Jourdan Dunn, who contributed to a beautiful photo shoot and who will surely have an ongoing and successful career in fashion.”
The cover has raised eyebrows among some parents, teens and advocates against teen pregnancy. Some worry it sends the wrong message. Others said parents should use the cover as a way to talk to their kids about sex and the importance of planning pregnancies.
“Teen parenting isn’t glamorous, even if you are a teen model,” said Valerie Huber, executive director of the National Abstinence Education Association.
After a record high in the early 1990s, the teen birth rate in the U.S. dropped 34 percent from 1991 to 2005. But between 2005 and 2007, it increased 5 percent, according to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.
Jill Taylor, chair of the women- and gender-studies department at Simmons College in Boston, said Vogue could have used the model’s pregnancy to provide more information about teen pregnancy. “Fourteen- and 15-year-olds reading it don’t have an idea how hard it is for most single mothers having babies. She’s got resources,” Taylor said.
