April is National Minority Health Month, which was created in 2002 to raise awareness of the health disparities that continue to affect racial and ethnic minorities. Unfortunately, for many reasons--including access to health care coverage, education, environment etc.--minorities face several health disparities, among them high rates of teen pregnancy.

The good news is that the U.S. teen pregnancy rate has declined 42% from its peak in 1990 and is now at a nearly 40-year low. This is a decline experienced by ALL racial/ethnic groups. But the rate of decline hasn't been equal and is in fact slower for Latino teens--white teens saw a 50% decrease, black teens saw a 48% decrease, and Latino teens saw a 37% decline. It is clear that there is much work left to be done.

It is truly fitting that the theme declared by the Office of Minority Health for this year is "Health Equity Can't Wait. Act Now in Your CommUNITY." Awareness and starting a dialogue with your community is where it all starts. That is why the National Campaign created a five-minute video called Demasiado Joven (Too Young). The video looks at teen pregnancy in the Latino community, as told by Latino teen parents. It shows how teen pregnancy is connected to other social issues and is a powerful discussion-starter. So go out there and start talking and getting your community involved!

I've been fortunate enough to spend some time recently with federal grantees and other leaders working to address teen pregnancy all over the country. Even though my colleagues and I are often invited to national meetings and gatherings to provide information and advice to these state and local experts, I always walk away feeling like I have gained more wisdom from them than I could possibly teach in our short time together.

Last week's workshops focused on communication--specifically, how we can talk about what we do in a way that resonates with the communities we're trying to reach and, well...doesn't tick anybody off. After hours of training and exercises and simulating interviews and chart paper, a really smart colleague raised this point:

The language we have at our disposal stinks.

It's true. We work in a field where we say stuff like:

• Evidence-based teenage pregnancy prevention programs (I fell asleep typing that)
• Adolescent sexual and reproductive health services (umm...what?) sometimes shortened to the hip and cool 'ASRH'
• Opportunity costs/deficits/insert noun that implies a connection to financial ledgers here

And the list goes on.

Nothing is wrong with using these phrases. In fact, if you work in this field, using this jargon is second nature. Not to mention, really smart people researched for years to develop the important concepts behind these terms. The problem is that they don't do a good enough job of capturing our values--put another way, you can't tell why we do what we do if you listen to the way we speak.

Let's pick on the Campaign for a moment and our decision to frame much of what we advocate for as "pregnancy prevention." Sounds kind of medical, kind of blah. Some would even argue that it implies an inappropriate singular focus on a particular reproductive health outcome (add the phrase "reproductive health outcome" to the list above) rather than giving weight to the full range of issues and circumstances that youth are facing when they make decisions about sex, relationships, and contraception.

But here's what we believe:

• Addressing high rates of teen pregnancy is an important issue to work on, including in communities where stark disparities exist for racial/ethnic groups, and even considering that in some situations the issue is complicated by poverty, a lack opportunity and resources for young people, and spotty access to information and services.
• We approach our work in communities with great consideration of these circumstances (also known as social determinants of health...LIST ALERT), and do our best to address all barriers that inhibit progress on this health issue and others.
• Our messages and actions about prevention should never, EVER alienate or stigmatize teen parents. They also must acknowledge that every single teen who becomes pregnant ALWAYS has a right to choose to parent, and that in a small number of cases, teens become pregnant intentionally.

We act on these values by supporting community-based organizations that provide services and programs to youth while addressing barriers to access within those communities, constantly asking teens what they want for themselves and how we can best support them, and by exploring data and important research questions about the circumstances in which teen and unplanned pregnancy occur, which provides important context about young people's lives for the work we do. But saying all of that takes too long. The language we have is imperfect, but it's what we have.

Here is what I propose. If we can acknowledge that our terminology leaves something to be desired, then you can assume when we say we work on "teen pregnancy prevention" that it entails much more than just going into communities and blindly telling teens not to get pregnant.

Language matters, but not as much as our values do.

I know I have a habit of being tongue-in-cheek about pretty much any topic, regardless of level of importance or severity of the issue, so I apologize in advance for any air of lightness in the post below. It's just tough; I may only be a few years out of the age bracket reported, but I've found myself channeling my inner wizened soul, hand on hip, finger wagging, when I read this stuff about America's teens.

According to new data released by the CDC in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) based on an analysis of PRAMS data, not only is this country facing a serious acronym glut, but apparently one half of teens aged 15-19 who had given birth between 2004 and 2008 were not using any method of birth control when they got pregnant. As someone who was a teen aged 15-19 during that exact same period, I'm pretty confident that procreation logistics were the same then as they are now. Intercourse (Man + Woman) - Contraception = Pregnancy. What could possibly be the rationale behind taking such an obvious risk?

So I read on. And the overwhelming reason unfolded like a horror movie: 26% of non-Hispanic white teens, 31% of non-Hispanic black teens, and 42% of Hispanic teens simply thought they could not get pregnant. Scary stuff, right? It may sound like a broken record coming from us, but clearly the message isn't getting through: you can get pregnant ANY time you have sex. If teens are having sex, they need to know that to prevent pregnancy you must use an effective form of birth control EVERY SINGLE TIME. And the only 100% effective way to prevent pregnancy? Not having sex at all.

I guess the real question is: how can we effectively get the message across? Education? Parents? The media? It's data like this that emphasizes how important it is for us to get up every morning and do all that we do.

"Hear no evil / Day 34" image by Aaron Goselin.

Ever wondered what people really say about you behind your back? If you've ever seen someone else get picked on or trash-talked right to their face, how did it make you feel? How would it affect your outlook if everyone expected you to fail?

No, this is not about to get into a whole thing about teen bullying. It's about Gaby Rodriguez, an 18-year-old Latina high schooler in Toppenish, Washington, who decided that the best way to make her school community face the prejudices they held against teen moms was to become one herself--or at least pretend to be--and then document everything people said about her. When she revealed her secret at a school assembly, she sparked a national conversation about stereotyping, teen parenthood, and the need for prevention.

Gaby wrote a book about her experiment and, tomorrow night (a.k.a. Saturday, January 28th) at 8/7c, Lifetime premieres "The Pregnancy Project," an original movie based on the book. (Get a sneak peek and more information about the movie on Lifetime's website). As the daughter of a teen mother, Gaby saw first-hand how teen parenthood can alter an entire family.

As an honor student with a bright future, Gaby's plan was to defy the odds: 52% of Latinas get pregnant as teens, and 3 in 10 girls overall get pregnant as teens. She was determined to finish high school and start a family after getting married and starting a career. But as she saw classmates turn into expectant mothers, she realized how quickly plans can get derailed and how important it was for her peers to understand that teen pregnancy can--and does--happen to just about anyone, not just "those girls."

With help from her mom, her boyfriend, the school principal and a close friend, Gaby spent six months lying about being pregnant and finding out what people really thought about her and about teen parents in general. By detailing the disappointment, knowing eye-rolls, and outright nasty comments from other students and even from teachers, Gaby showed her peers that even "good girls" can get pregnant and that teen moms deserve better than pity and derision.

Watch the "Pregnancy Project" with your teens. Use this discussion guide to explore the themes in the movie and how they relate to your own family. Hear what real teens have to say. Did Gaby's experiment cross a line? Or was it worthwhile? Tell us what you think.

According to results from our "With One Voice" survey, 86% of Latino parents say they want to talk to their children about sex, but don't know how. Yet after returning from California, where I conducted several focus groups that were attended by Latino families, it is clear to me that this number fails to convey the strong desire Latino parents have to talk about how sex and teen pregnancy relate to their teens' lives. Those who participated in the focus groups were from all walks of life and excited to be there. Parents, both mothers and fathers, told me they enjoyed the conversation and would have liked to have the chance to continue to talk about it. This gave me the impression that talking about teen pregnancy in a "real way" was something they had never done before.

To help spark conversations about teen pregnancy within the Latino community, The National Campaign recently made available a five minute short film called Demasiado Joven (inspired by Too Young, another short film released by the Campaign in 2008). The film shares the stories of six Latina teen mothers and one Latino teen father and their personal experiences with teen pregnancy. Demasiado Joven provides a unique perspective, through the eyes of young families who share their hopeful and honest stories while connecting teen pregnancy with other social issues, such as poverty and education.

Although Demasiado Joven doesn't cover everything when it comes to teen pregnancy, it is a powerful conversation starter. If I learned anything during my focus groups, the community is hungry to talk. I encourage you to share this video and begin a conversation wherever there is none.