Tonight is the series premiere of MTV’s newest teen mom show Pretty Little Mamas, which features five twenty-something moms living in the San Diego area who had children while very young. The show is a dramatic departure from the network’s previous ventures into documenting the lives of young mothers as the trailer reveals a VERY stylized studio-quality production that has many potential viewers wondering whether or not the show was a reality show or purely scripted.
The answer appears to be a bit of a hybrid of the two options, hearkening back to MTV’s popular pseudo-reality soap The Hills and their much more recent series Siesta Key. Four of the five cast members are indeed long-time friends in real life, dating back to their high school days and even before. The only exception is Nikki, who grew up in Singapore and moved to San Diego while in college — joining the gal gang about four years ago.
So essentially, MTV found a group of glamorous young moms and have created a show in which the cast members play themselves, but with story lines that are HEAVILY edited and scripted. The concept seems like an incredibly marketable one as it mashes up so many tried and true concepts, including Teen Mom, The Hills, and Pretty Little Liars — but the concept also places a very heavy burden on the stars of the show as they will not only have to look glamorous (not a problem for any of them), but they will have to act.
Not-so-great acting can add charm to a show like this, but poor acting could easily turn people off immediately. The initial preview trailer does seem to feature some stiff scenes between the moms, but we won’t know for sure if the cast’s acting skills will be enough to keep viewers tuned in until a few weeks from now. Here’s the preview trailer:
As I mentioned above, the moms of the show will have no problem bringing the glam. All of them have an amazingly strong Instagram game and consistently look nothing short of perfectly gorgeous. I confess that I was a bit awestruck scrolling through a few of the accounts as I wondered how it was even possible to be a single mom in your early twenties and maintain a high-fashion, seemingly perfect life that included ALWAYS being swimsuit-ready!
As an example, here’s mom Nicole Elise Hussey just chilling at the beach with her infant daughter Alaia:
If you are looking for proof that the Pretty Little Mamas are indeed old friends, then you need look no further than their Instagram accounts. With a good bit of scrolling, you can rewind a number of years and see tons of pictures of most all of the ladies posing together and appearing to be very close gal pals. Here are some examples:
For those of you wishing to keep up with the cast on Instagram, which I highly recommend regardless of how the show turns out, I have gathered up links for all the Pretty Little Mamas cast Instagram accounts. I’ve also added some info about their children and significant others, including additional Instagram account links for most of the dads:
Nicole Pleskow Instagram: @nicolepleskow
Nicole’s almost-six-year-old daughter is Noelle Blair Long, born October 19, 2012. I’m not sure who Noelle’s dad is.
Cheyenne Enriquez Latu Instagram: @_mamachey
Cheyenne’s husband is Teli Latu (Instagram: @_telidaddy) and Teli is the father of Cheyenne’s three-year-old daughter Kiele (born on November 7, 2014) and 18-month old son King (born February 21, 2017).
Alyssa Abrenica Instagram: @lyssbrenbren
Alyssa’s fiance Brandon Myers (Instagram: @bmagicalflow) is the father of Alyssa’s 4-year-old son Kayden (born June 11, 2014)
Chandlar Walby Instagram: @instachangram
Chandlar has two children: almost-six-year-old daughter Aubrey (born September 11, 2012) and one-year-old son Jaxson. Aubrey’s dad is James Hartwell (Instagram: @jameshartwell), who is paralyzed after a BMX accident and no longer in a relationship with Chandlar. Chandlar is still with Jaxson’s father Aaron Carr (Instagram: @acarrzle07), whose drug addiction struggles will be featured on Pretty Little Mamas.
Nicole Elise “Nikki” Hussey Instagram: @nichussey
Nikki has a two-year-old daughter named Alaia (born early June, 2016), whose father is Ryan DeVerse (Instagram: @ryn_d)
Pretty Little Mamas premieres tonight at 9/8c on MTV. While you wait for the premiere, I thought it might be fun to send you off with a series of baby bump photos of the cast — which really are Instagramtastic:
Asa Hawks is a writer and editor for Starcasm. You can contact Asa via Twitter, Facebook, or email at starcasmtips(at)yahoo.com