In The Pregnancy Project written by Gaby Rodriguez, Gaby herself tells the story of her senior project. As a social experiment, Gaby faked a pregnancy to see how people would react and treat her. Coming from a family where teen pregnancy was normal, she didn't want to go down that path. She got good grades, was involved in many different school activities and was creating a good life for herself. Only a few people stood by her side while she completed the project. However, they weren't all happy. Jorge, her boyfriend wanted his parents off his back and her mom wanted to stop lying to her brothers and sisters. Gaby was determined to finished and when she did, everybody was shocked. Some students and teachers were upset because they felt left out, but some were also proud of her. She was proud of herself.
Throughout the novel, Rodriguez creates a rather simplistic style. Simplistic means treating complex issues and problems as if they were much simpler than they really are. What would you do if you or someone else you know were pregnant? Would you make it a big deal? Gaby made it look easy. As the reader, I know it wasn't, but Rodriguez believed in herself. She got to take the belly off at night, but during the day she was another pregnant teen that was being tormented and starred at. Even though, it wasn't real, she had to treat it like it was. As many times as she wanted to say," I'm not even pregnant, " and "I'm still going to college because I'm not pregnant, " she couldn't. The rumors were real about a fake situation and she couldn't stop her project.
Gaby Rodriguez's diction and syntax is simple. There were some words that looked different, but other than that her story was easy to understand. "I'm thinking about a project that will explore how people are influenced by stereotypes," I took a deep breath. " And the way I want to do that is by introducing a false pregnancy. Mine. I want to fake a pregnancy.(84)" When I came to this part of the novel, i was shocked. It took her awhile to come out and say what she was really going to do for her senior project. She'd hinted that it would have something to do with pregnancy, but I would've never thought of that. On page 146, something else caught my attention. No, Gaby's words and sentences aren't complex, but she is smart and her words will make you think. " ...Being a seventeen-year-old mom is not cool, either. Everyone oohs and ahhs over your baby for five minutes, and then you get left in the dust to deal with your responsibilities while your friends are still out there being kids." This actually had a big effect on me. As the child of a teen mother, I've seen the hardships and I don't want to be like that. I want to be able to raise my children without struggling, other than changing diapers. That's what Gaby was trying to get across.
Gaby also made sure that the readers could visualize what she's saying. My favorite line of imagery is when she describes what the " baby bump" looks like. " My mom and I went to the craft store to get wire and clay, which she used to build the fake belly around basketball, then removed the basketball after the clay dried, " "... Should it have a zipper in the back? Snaps? Would people notice that under my clothes?" The description gave readers a good look of what Gaby would be experiencing for the next six months!
I most definitely would recommend this novel to anyone. I would recommend it to mostly teen girls. Miss Rodriguez is capable of changing your thoughts about the things we see everyday such as stereotyping and teen pregnancy!
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