Nearly four years after appearing in the third season of 16 & Pregnant, Kayla Jackson said the decision to participate still haunts her.
“I hate 16 and Pregnant,” she said in text picture on Twitter. “It was the worst decision I’ve ever made… Every time they replay it and people ask me about it I regret it all over again.”
Kayla’s 2011 episode is best-remembered by many because she was struggling with an eating disorder at the time and had a strained relationship with her mom. In the episode, she welcomed baby boy Preston with then-boyfriend Mike Schwing. They’ve since broken up, but Kayla seems to be rockin’ single motherhood.
Still, she said she’s regularly judged for the show — even though she claims it wasn’t truly representative of her relationships at the time.
“Things were pieced together to look a certain way. I was pushed to have certain conversations I wouldn’t have normally had,” she said. “My life looked like s**t when in reality I was happy. I had really good times with Mike and my friends and, yes, even my mom. Did they show any of that? No. They showed me starving myself (not true), fighting with my mom, dropping out of school…”
Now that she’s older and wiser, Kayla said she never would have done the show. But, because she can’t take that back, she just wants people to know she’s a different person these days.
“I hardly relate to the person I was back then. Everything from my parenting, to my relationships with my friends and family, to my home life, to my mental health is completely different,” she said. “I am happy, healthy and working every day to improve myself.”
As The Ashley’s Reality Roundup notes, Kayla isn’t the first to express her regrets about 16 & Pregnant: Felicia Cooke also called participating her “worst mistake” because of the scrutiny she’s been subjected to ever since. The Ashley (who penned a whole book on the topic of 16 & Pregnant/Teen Mom) also pointed out that many of the girls are dazzled by the idea of fame and a quick $5,000, but don’t always anticipate the downsides of broadcasting their lives and how fans will track them for years to come.
