My mind was made up when I saw the cover of US Weekly at the supermarket yesterday.

Rewind to a few months ago, when I first realized that there was a show on MTV called "Teen Mom". I watched, horrified (and by watched I mean "was subjected to as I failed to grapple the remote from Suzi's death grip") as the show chronicled the, I guess we'll go ahead and call them the "exploits" of a group of teenage girls who had given birth to little bundles of inevitable failure.

It went beyond the merely mundane and dull for two reasons: first, these people are all incredibly unpleasant to spend time with. Teenage girls are, in general, dumb and hold little interest for me. But when these girls had their babies, I think any personality they had might have been sucked out as part of the afterbirth. And secondly, can't you see these girls as being role models for a certain type of lonely, emotionally unbalanced teenager? These girls had babies, and now they had their own TV show! Teenage motherhood had made them celebrities!

Suzi countered: this show (rather convincingly) recounts how much it sucks to be a teen mom. It isn't a reality show about glamorous parties and celebrity friends; its about changing diapers, working a shitty job, and ultimately having your life go nowhere. Would any girls watching this show really aspire to this?

Well, nice try, Suze. Back to the checkout counter: US Weekly prominently featured two of the Teen Moms on the cover. It was one thing if all you saw from the show was the horribleness of these girls lives, but now if they start getting the trappings of stardom attached to them, then what? Obviously you or I, reasonable, well-adjusted adults, don't aspire to be these girls. But the type of girl who would be stupid enough to have a baby as a teenager in the first place is stupid enough for this show to convince them its a good idea.