Impacts of YOLO on a Caucasian Teenage Girl
In the image above we see a female of Caucasian descent, mostly likely in her late teens, sitting on her bed clutching a pregnancy test in her hand. The image portrays a girl who isn’t enthusiastic about the outcome of the pregnancy test, by the way one hand is clutching the pregnancy stick and the other is fisted together tightly. We can also tell the apprehension she is feeling by the tension in her demeanor; her legs are held firmly together, and her feet seem to dig into the carpet beneath her foretelling what is to come. The caption also helps portray the purpose of the image to the viewers of Facebook. The caption of the picture reads, “Nine months from now #YOLO Just won’t be as cool as you thought it was.” With this caption the viewer must determine actually what is being implied; is it referring to the term YOLO or is it an advocate for the end to the rise in teen pregnancies in the United States? Notice in the image that the female in the picture is Caucasian, which leads the viewers to infer that it is mostly young white females who are at risk of teen pregnancy, but that isn’t necessarily true. It is widely known that the majority of teen mothers in our preset generation are of African-American and Hispanic descent. So why portray the female as white, if the general concept of the image is teen pregnancy? Perhaps the color of her “skin (white)” is actually meant to be the lack of color giving it a universal meaning. The white of her skin can be substituted to mean that females of all races, have been victims of teen pregnancy brought on by their carelessness when it came to sex. This image allows the viewer an insight into the true negative meaning of YOLO. You Only Live Once, is supposed to be about taking risks, but making sure they are risks that will benefit your future. Instead of using YOLO as an excuse to partake in idiotic activities, such as driving 112mph while trying to text, how about using it to improve