‘I WAS A GREAT TEEN MUM'

FALLING PREGNANT AS A TEENAGER DIDN’T RUIN LIFE FOR EBONY CURTIS

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With her whole life ahead of her, Ebony Curtis was 15 years old and had been dating her boyfriend for three months when she missed her period.

Secretly, she took a home pregnancy test that confirmed her fears – she was expecting.

Back then she was just a young Year 9 student attending Catholic school in Tasmania. Ebony says she was naive and “uneducated” when it came to birth control.

She was a bundle of nerves when it came to breaking the news to her unsuspecting parents. “Telling Mum and Dad was the scariest thing ever,” Ebony, now 24, reveals. “They were both so angry and disappointed.”

Feeling afraid and alone, Ebony listened when people said it was wrong to have a child out of wedlock, and while termination was not supported, there seemed no other option.

She was criticised for “ruining her life”. But despite her relationship with her baby’s father (he went to a different school) fizzling almost instantly, Ebony was determined to prove naysayers wrong.

“I knew I would be a good mum, and that my life wasn’t ruined,” she says.