In a couple of weeks, MTV will start airing their new documentary series, "Teen Mom." A follow-up to the hit "16 and Pregnant," this new show takes you back into the lives of four of the original "16 and Pregnant" girls -- Maci, Amber, Catelynn, and Farrah -- for their first year of teen motherhood, asking whether you can live like a teenager once you've become a parent.

I wasn't sure what to expect when I first heard that MTV -- the network that arguably started the reality TV craze with "The Real World" nearly a generation ago, and is now known for launching the careers of Lauren Conrad and Spencer Pratt -- was planning a documentary-style series on pregnant and parenting teenagers. After watching the initial six-episode run of "16 and Pregnant," I know one thing... I'm hooked and I'm going to watch every single episode of "Teen Mom."

  An interesting study by the University of Pittsburgh published in the November issue of Pediatrics found a link between teen girls' body weight (actual and perceived) and their likelihood of engaging in risky sexual behaviors. These included having intercourse before turning 13, having sex with more than four partners, consuming alcohol in connection with sex, and having unprotected sex.  The study surveyed 7,200 high school girls, with half reporting that they had ever had sex.

Some key points:

• Caucasian girls who believed they were underweight were more likely to have had sex and to have had four or more sexual partners than girls who considered themselves at a normal weight.
• Caucasian girls who were actually overweight were less likely to use condoms.
• African-American girls who were underweight were less likely to use condoms than those of normal weight, and overweight African-American girls were more likely to report four or more sexual partners.
• Latina girls of all weights were more likely to engage in a wide variety of risky sexual behaviors, from lack of condom use and sex before age 13 to having more than four sexual partners during their teens and using alcohol.

Some scary things to consider this Halloween:

• The teen birth rate is on the rise after 15 straight years of decline.
• Fully seven in ten pregnancies among single 20-somethings are unplanned.
• More than half of pregnancies reported by unmarried men in their 20s are unplanned.
• Rosie O'Donnell is launching a new radio show.
• The magic less sex/more contraception formula that drove down the teen pregnancy rate over the past decade plus now seems to have morphed into a more sex/less contraception formula.
• 3 in ten girls in the United States get pregnant by age 20.
• Mariah Carey continues to record and release music.

What are some things that are scaring you? Let us know.

I must admit that I have been a reluctant participant to blogging, but finally something caught my attention. Recently, I had two interactions with a shopping mall that revealed to me the younger generation's--albeit, misguided in my opinion--obsession with looking good. I am a child of the 60's, when mothers routinely reminded us to wear clean underwear and never to leave the house without a slip and girdle when wearing a dress. As an African-American, I was often told to be careful with the selection of the color of my lipstick, so that my lips would not be too pronounced. "The times they are a-changin'".

Public opinion polling shows that two-thirds of adults (67%) believe most teen mothers come from homes below the federal poverty threshold. A full 70% of adults believe that most teen mothers come from single parent homes.

Not true.

According to new analysis of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health conducted by our wonderful friends at Child Trends and released today by The National Campaign, only 28% of those who report having given birth or fathered a child as a teen lived in families below the poverty level. Only 30% of those teen parents said they were living with a single parent (39% said they lived with both biological parents and 19% said they lived with one biological parent and one step-parent).