Diablo Cody Stole My Idea (sorta)

So back in the day (which happened to be freshman year of high school), my girlfriends and I huddled around a bathroom stall, nervously joking to one another. We were, of course, adding levity to the fact that one of our own was anxiously waiting the results of a pregnancy test on the other side of the door. Three minutes later, negative. Yay to no teen mothers! Yay to no abortions! Yay to another un-ruined life!

These occasions (more often than I'd like to admit) helped me develop a brain-script (script for a film that existed only in my brain) about a snarky, geek-chic teen girl who became pregnant from a one-night encounter with a friend. However, where Diablo Cody failed in her Juno story, I (think I have) succeeded. Instead, I have the teen grapple with the idea of an abortion. Juno allowed for the main character to consider abortion for ten minutes; I created an entire story about it.

What upsets me most about current media is how unplanned pregnancy is discussed. Juno, Knocked Up, 16 and Pregnant. These stories make us (us = young women) think that abortion really isn't an option. No one really considers "dealing with the problem," and if they do, this decision is made quickly. Instead, this difficult, but sometimes necessary, step is played off as just another punch line. Young women, as consumers of media, are taught that abortion is never to be taken seriously, only because it apparently doesn't exist.

Which is why I would like to change that. Ever see 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days? If not, I strongly recommend it. It's no surprise that a film like this was made in Europe, and not the US. American audiences simply wouldn't be able to handle how heavy this film is. While my personal filmmaking style is not so intense, I would like to make a film that deals directly with a young woman's pregnancy, mental anguish, and final decision to get an abortion. If something like that could get national attention, maybe we wouldn't have 16 and Pregnant or so-called "pregnancy pacts."