Interview 43

Age at interview: 18

Brief Outline: Says that she had her first sexual experience much too young and that she was not emotionally prepared to cope with the experience. (Played by an actor)

Background: Lives in a rural community with her parents and siblings. She is in full-time education. (Played by an actor)

Feels sorry for teenage mothers and thinks that the government and schools should do something. (Actor)

(The accompanying video and audio clips are played by an actor)

What are your views about teenagers having children?

I feel really sorry for them, I mean obviously if it happens, you happen to fall pregnant and you're a teenager it's a very difficult decision to make, one of my friends didn't know until she was five months pregnant, and by that time obviously you can't make the decision, and a lot of people of that age might not realise that they're pregnant or might not want to have an abortion or whatever. 

So I thought it's got to be quite difficult, and to have to bring up a child whilst you're still a child yourself, is got to be really hard. I mean I wouldn't want to do it, but I think that there's got to be questions asked about why they're pregnant in the first place and I think that's something that the Government or the schools really should answer, why so many people are getting pregnant at such a young age and why they're not doing anything to prevent it, these pregnancies are ruining young people's lives basically.

Explains that at the age of nine she did not know anything about periods and that she was totally terrified the first time she menstruated. (Actor)

(The accompanying video and audio clips are played by an actor)

When I first had my period I was at my Nan's house and I started crying, I was in the bathroom, I started crying and I called my mum and I said to mum, mum come quick, come quick, you've got to call an ambulance, I'm bleeding, and I didn't know anything about it, no one had ever told me anything about it. 

And I think schools, junior schools, I think had the talk in Year 6, I would have been about eleven, but by then I'd had periods for two years and my parents were kind of leaving it to the school to do and the school didn't see anybody, to tell anybody anyone younger than that kind of age ten/eleven, because most people don't start their periods that young, its really embarrassing, I don't suppose, I don't really know, so I didn't know anything about it at all.

What was your mum's response when you told her?

I think that my mum came into the bathroom and she said 'what are you on about' and she saw blood in my underwear and she went through to my nan's living room and said 'right, wait there I'll be back in a minute', and went through to my Nan's living room and got a sanitary towel out of her handbag, she just came in and said 'right, put this in your underwear I need to go and talk to your Nan' and took my Nan into the kitchen. 

And that terrified me because I thought oh my God, I'm dying, do you know what I mean, because they're having a serious talk and the door is closed and I'm not allowed in, and so when I went back in my mum said that, she sat me down and explained what a period was and why I was having it and that it means that I'm a real women now and that I've got to grow up, I've got to act grown up at nine years old.