People always have opinions and want to project their views of what is right and wrong on other people’s lives. The decision to become a parent is a highly personal one. Many well-intentioned people will say you should wait until you have x, y, and z to do it.
Here are nine celebrities who became mothers when they gave birth as teens.
Roseanne Barr
Comedian Roseanne Barr found out she was pregnant when she was 17 years old. She chose not to keep her baby, instead giving her up for adoption. When Roseanne became a household name, some tabloids found out about her child and were going to publish a story about the situation. Thankfully, Roseanne was able to contact the now teen and explain before it hit the press.
Roseanne opened up to People magazine about the experience. "I went away to Denver and moved into a Salvation Army home for unwed mothers. My family wasn’t too supportive. I gave my baby up to the Jewish Family & Children’s Service in Denver. They said they had a couple that had waited seven years for a Jewish baby. But the day they came to take my baby away, I whispered to her, ‘You remember this, I’ll see you when you’re 18.’ I always knew that. I always knew we would get back," she stated.
Kim Zolciak-Biermann
Kim was not tardy to the party of motherhood. She had her daughter Brielle when she was 19 years old. This was before she was famous for her appearances as an original cast member on Bravo’s The Real Housewives of Atlanta and Don’t Be Tardy and for her recording career. Kim is now a mother of six, whom she shares with her husband Kroy Biermann.
Sofía Vergara
Before she was famous, Sofía Vergara married her high school sweetheart at age 18. Just one year later they had their first child. Sofía opened up about this to Redbook, explaining that the decision had its pros and cons.
"When I had Manolo, I was 19, and I had the energy for everything,” she said. She did list some downsides. "It’s a big responsibility; you can’t go out much at night. Instead of buying a pair of shoes, you have to buy diapers. When you have a kid, you have to be more mature," she added.
Solange Knowles
It cannot be easy being the sister of Beyoncé, but Solange has forged her own path. She married her high school sweetheart at age 17, and one year later had her son. She acknowledges that many did not agree with her decision, but she wouldn’t change a thing.
“You will be terrified, and it’s ok that you don’t know what the future holds. Some people will count you out because of the decision you’ve made to bring another life into the world so young, but you made the decision out of love and will live with the decision in love,” she wrote in a letter to herself published in Teen Vogue.
Jamie Lynn Spears
Jamie Lynn Spears can certainly relate to having to live in her older sister’s shadow. Jamie found out she was pregnant when she was 16 years old and working as a Nickelodeon star. Although her family did not want her to keep the baby, she decided to anyway. She took time off from her career and moved to Mississippi to become a mom, which was not an easy task.
She told Good Morning America about the experience: "I think that the easy thing for possibly then would have been like, 'Let’s just get this over with and like you go back to being the perfect little sister, because that’s your role.' I just, like, thank God I stood up for myself and said exactly what I wanted.”
Sophia Grace
Sophia Grace rose to fame as a precocious viral sensation singing along to Nicki Minaj songs at age 8. She and her cousin appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show numerous times. Fast-forward to today, and Sophia is 19 and expecting her first child.
She told E! News, "I feel like 19 is quite young, obviously, to have a baby. Usually most people are like, 'You should have babies when you’re 30 and you’re married and you live in your own house,' which is completely fine. But obviously everyone’s gonna have their different opinions. I just feel it's about the person themselves. And as long as you feel ready and it's something that you're happy about, then it's really no one else's problem."
Shirley Temple
Shirley Temple was a child star of the 1930s. She sang, danced, and acted her way into the hearts of movie audiences. She got married at age 17 to John Agar, an Army Air Corps sergeant. The couple welcomed their daughter Linda to the world when Shirley was just 19 years old. They eventually divorced, and Shirley was granted custody of Linda.
Whoopi Goldberg
Whoopi Goldberg is open about her struggles with drug addiction in her younger days. She sought help for her addiction from drug counselor Alvin Martin. The pair would go on to hit it off beyond Whoopi’s recovery. They married, and Whoopi would have their daughter Alex at age 18. Things were not always glamorous at the beginning, but all seems to have worked out for the best.
Alex opened up about the early years on her reality show According to Alex. "I know what it’s like with the food stamps, because my mom has her [Welfare] cards framed. Seriously … I remember that. I remember we had the one room space and we slept in the bed together. I remember when we wanted to travel we would drive across the country in broke down bugs," she said.
Loretta Lynn
Country icon Loretta Lynn had four children by the time she was 18 years old. She had her first child at age 14. Her husband, Oliver Vanetta "Doolittle" Lynn, encouraged her musical talents, so she was able to be both a young mom and a country superstar. The couple had six children altogether. Loretta died on October 4, 2022, at the age of 90.
