De'Janae Simpson flits around the hundreds of folks gathered at Eagle Church in Whitestown with nervous energy. It's not the first time this 17-year-old has addressed so many people, but she wants to appear polished, mature, successful.

I want to take you on a journey. De’Janae’s journey. I have spent the last year following De’Janae and chronicling her life as she coped with the realities of pregnancy, from her changing body to raging hormones to her inability to follow doctors’ orders to take vitamins and make nutritious meal choices.

But this isn’t just a story about teen pregnancy or a cautionary tale about older men preying on young teens. This is a story about a young woman who is desperate to beat the odds. She certainly faces an uphill battle; statistics show that teen mothers routinely fail to earn a high school diploma and often end up living in poverty.

I’ve talked at length with De’Janae about those statistics and why she thinks she can build a better life for herself despite all the obstacles — collisions she's already had and those yet to be discovered.

I want to make sure Za’Nyla has the best support system in life, in school and even in relationships. I want to make sure she needs for nothing. And I want to make sure she sees me graduate not only high school, but college and say ‘I want to be that.’

Read the full article by Suzette Hackney about teen pregnancy from Chalkbeat