Toddlers, tabloids keep them busy - Chicago Sun-Times

By ALICIA RANCILIO July 17, 2011 5:44PM

Maci Bookout (from left), Farrah Abrahams and Catelynn Lowell are in their third season on MTVs Teen Mom.| Richard Drew~AP

Updated: July 17, 2011 5:46PM

NEW YORK People tend to stare at 19-year-old Maci Bookout.

On the weekends that Bentleys dad has him and me and my friends go out ... to a club or something, she says, I can tell that people are, like, watching to see how Im going to act.

The Chattanooga, Tenn., mother of a 2-year-old named Bentley is one of the stars of MTVs Teen Mom (9 p.m. Tuesdays, MTV) a reality show about kids with kids.

Bookout and her co-stars Farrah Abraham, Amber Portwood and Catelynn Lowell made their TV debut on another MTV reality show, 16 and Pregnant. The series was so successful that the network tapped them to star in the Teen Mom spin-off. Nielsen reports some 3.65 million viewers tuned in to its third season premiere on July 5.

Viewers watched Lowell and her boyfriend Tyler grieve over the daughter they gave up for adoption, Abrahams ups and downs with her mother and Bookout navigate co-parenting with her ex-fiance Ryan.

Motherhood has made the teens instant celebrities, with tabloids and bloggers hot on their trail.

But Abraham, 20, who has a 2-year-old daughter named Sophia, doesnt think that having a baby should make her a celebrity or a role model. By no means do we think, Oh, its cool to be a teen mom. I definitely dont think that its cool, she says.

Fame hasnt been easy for all the teens, particularly 21-year-old Portwood, of Anderson, Ind., who was given probation in June after pleading guilty to two domestic battery charges against Gary Shirley, the father of her child. The incidents aired on the reality show.

The following week, Shirley called 911, fearing Portwood was about to hurt herself. The reality star was hospitalized and is now undergoing treatment at a rehab facility. Her child, Leah, is living with her father.

I love Amber. I mean, I hope that she just keeps her head up and she knows what she needs to get done and stays strong, says Lowell, 19, of Port Huron, Mich. I think where shes at is good for her right now and she just needs to focus on getting better.

AP