Jillina is 16 years old.

She lives in the United States.

Here's a peek at her life...

Ouch!. It's 2 am and I stubbed my toe again while I was running to the baby's room. I am so tired that I could fall asleep in the middle of a Rickie Martin concert (not that I will ever get to see a concert again.) Feeding Aimee every few hours is getting old fast, but she won't drink from a bottle. Everyone says that it will get better when she is 6 months old, but that is three long months from now.

I haven't had a minute to be alone since she was born, and most days I have to take her in the bathroom with me if I want to take a shower.

Mom has been great - she has helped me a lot with taking care of Aimee, but I am still the one who is responsible for this helpless person. She is so beautiful, soft, and delicate, and I love her so much. But I'm so tired, cranky, and irritated all the time, and I get mad at her for keeping me up all night. Since I'm breastfeeding, I have to eat and drink constantly even if I don't feel like it.

I can't believe that next week I have to go back to school and Aimee will be in day care. After school I have to take the bus to my job at the grocery store until 6 PM and then go back to pick up Aimee at day care. I don't know how I am going to do all this and feed the baby every few hours throughout the night.

I baby-sat a lot before I got pregnant, so I though that I knew what it was going to be like to have a baby. Boy, was I surprised when we got home from the hospital after Aimee was delivered! She's a great baby and I love her, but taking care of her is very hard work and it's expensive. Diapers, toys, clothes, baby food, and day care cost a lot of money, and Aimee's father (my ex-boyfriend) isn't helping me at all because he didn't want me to keep the baby.

I know that we're going to make it, but now I realize that it's going to be really hard to do it alone.

In the olden days, most girls were married by the time they were 13 or 14 years old. So, teen pregnancy was normal, even expected. It was NOT unusual for girls to have several children by the time they were 20 years old.

Unlike back then, a teenager now who has an unplanned pregnancy outside of marriage is faced with many difficult decisions...

First, a girl must consider all of her options including keeping the baby, putting him or her up for adoption, or getting an abortion. All of these options are complicated, and a lot of times important people like the baby's father or your parents want something different than you do.

To give you an idea of what teenage girls are choosing, consider the most recent US statistics from 1996: about one million teenagers between the ages of 15 to 19 get pregnant each year (that's about 3,000 teens getting pregnant every day). Of these, about 50% have the baby, 40% choose to have an abortion, and 10% lose the baby through miscarriage.

According to these statistics, 500,000 teenage girls become mothers each year. The risks to the baby and the teenager are higher than if she had a baby when she was more than 20 years old. Pregnant teens are at higher risk than older women for having a low-birth weight baby because they are less likely to get good prenatal care.

In addition, 1 in 4 (about 3 million) teens are infected with sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) each year. Having an STD while you are pregnant increases your chances of harming or infecting the baby.

You probably already know how difficult life can be for a teenage mother. They are more likely to drop out of high school than girls who do not become pregnant. Without a high school diploma, it is hard to find a job that pays well enough to support yourself and a baby.

Here's something you may not know...

About 50% of teen mothers become pregnant again within two years of the baby's birth. AND 25% actually have a second baby within two years of the first.

Knowing how hard it can be to have a baby does not stop half a million teen girls each year from becoming mothers. Why do they do it?

Some say, "Having a baby gives me someone who will love me." Others say, that their boyfriends wanted a baby, that he would not use birth control, or that the birth control failed and they did not want to have an abortion.

It's a lot harder to make decisions after you become pregnant, so think ahead, girl!

Your first decision is whether or not you want to be sexually active. If you decide that you are not ready, well, you're naturally protected from both pregnancy and most STDs.

If you decide to become sexually active, protect yourself by using birth control (contraception) each and every time you have intercourse. If you don't, there's a 90% chance that you will get pregnant within one year!

Don't take that chance with your future. Take care of yourself inside and out.

Sometimes taking care of yourself means that you have to tell someone how you feel EVEN if it's your dad and you have to tell him that he's being a DORK!