The Candie’s Foundation celebrated National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy earlier today by hosting an event in New York City honoring Maci Bookout, Vanessa Hudgens and Sean Lowe for their courageous efforts to educate teens on the consequences of teen pregnancy.
In their mission statement, The Candie’s Foundation describes itself as “a non-profit organization that works to shape the way the youth in America think about the devastating consequences of teen pregnancy and parenthood.” Their method has been to recruit “celebrities that teens can relate to” and use them to create both print and video Public Service Announcements (PSAs) that are then disseminated to both national media outlets and via social media and viral campaigning, as well as community-level teen pregnancy prevention programs, which raises awareness from more of a grassroots level.
Their roster of celebrity spokespeople includes such big names as Lea Michelle, Hilary Duff, Hayden Panettiere, Fergie, Fall Out Boy, Ciara, Carly Rae Jepsen and Jenny McCarthy.
Thankfully, the Candie’s Foundation’s efforts seem to be working:
Our campaigns are making a difference. Research has shown that teen girls who have been exposed to The Foundation and its messages are more likely to view teen pregnancy and parenthood as stressful and negative, and are more likely to be skeptical of the media’s portrayal of teen pregnancy and parenting. Teens exposed to the campaign also believe their peers should wait longer to have sex versus those who are not aware of The Foundation and the education it brings about teen parenthood.
As many fans of Teen Mom and 16 & Pregnant are aware, numerous studies have shown that these shows are also having a huge impact on reducing teen pregnancy rates in the United States, and no other cast member has done more for the franchise than Maci Bookout.
In addition to starring on 16 & Pregnant and the original incarnation of Teen Mom, Maci has also returned to the franchise as an after-show interviewer for Teen Mom 3. Maci took to instagram to express her gratitude to the Candie’s Foundation for choosing to honor her. She shared the photo of herself below and wrote, “Blessed to be honored by the @candiesorg for my efforts in teen pregnancy prevention, on the National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. Means so much to me! xo #NoTeenPreg #NYC
Maci also took to instagram to offer up her thanks to the person responsible for her amazing hair extensions! “HUGE thanks to @extensionsby_tori for styling my hair today in NYC for the @candiesorg event! Thanks so much girl, you’ve got great talent and a personality to go with it! xo” That caption went along with this picture:
Victoria Caputo (aka @extensionsby_tori) shared a couple of photos of her own, including great front and back shots of Maci’s lush ‘do:
As I mentioned, in addition to Maci Bookout, The Candie’s Foundation also honored actress and singer Vanessa Hudgens for her work in the film Gimme Shelter, as well as The Bachelor’s Sean Lowe, a vocal proponent of abstinence. Both Vanessa and Sean also expressed their appreciation for being honored on social media today:
Thank you @CandiesOrg for honoring me with an award for my work in Gimme Shelter! pic.twitter.com/lHQ3iAaHyH
— Vanessa Hudgens (@VanessaHudgens) May 7, 2014
Thank you @CandiesOrg for the award this morning. #NoTeenPreg pic.twitter.com/YDm6Ouwv4g
— Sean Lowe (@SeanLowe09) May 7, 2014
DAMN! Those are some good lookin’ honorees! (I’m just sayin’!)
You can find out more about The Candie’s Foundation at these links:
www.candiesfoundation.org
The Candie’s Foundation on Twitter: @CandiesOrg
The Candie’s Foundation on Facebook
And in case you missed it, celebrate National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy by taking the Teen Pregnancy Quiz at www.stayteen.org!
Here is a gallery of Candie’s Foundation PSAs for you followed by their latest video. All you teens out there, check ’em out and pay attention!
