This piece is overly constructed. What is being passed off as a real-life story comes across as blandly rehearses lines from a teen's day.

The boyfriend J. Bobby is obviously reading a script, the Nuns make for overblown caricatures, and the clinic woman is the only thing that comes close to a real person.

I'm not sure why it was chosen to go in this direction -- I think a less controlled, people actually making off-the-cuff remarks piece would be much stronger.

The ending is a bit vague and expected, I almost wanted Salt'n'Pepa's "Let Talk About Sex" to come up. The moral we get at is that we should openly and honestly discuss sex with youth -- but the conflicts in this story are so flat and built up that it ruins the ending -- making us laugh rather than feel touched at the final lines.

If our reporter would have just sat and recorded her thoughts and then recorded real-life conversations with these people, then I think we would have a better view into her world.

Technical issues: sound dips between interviewees, I can hear the mic banging around, and the ambient sound is awkward.

Don't construct real life events!

matt terrell
youth editorial board
generation.prx.org