Having a baby is one of life's greatest pleasures for many people, but becoming a parent and
raising a child isn't an easy undertaking.
For that reason, many people are waiting until later in life to become first-time parents.
But not everyone waits.
Some people, including celebs, enter the world of parenthood while they're still teenagers.
Here are some of the stars who had their first child before they even turned 20.
Actress Suzanne Somers is a well-recognized
celeb, but before she was famous she struggled to make ends meet.
Somers had a troubled childhood, with an alcoholic father who was often verbally and emotionally
abusive.
Somers told People magazine that her siblings later developed alcohol addictions themselves,
something Somers feels fortunate to have avoided.
She met her first husband, Bruce, when she was 15.
Within two years, she was pregnant and married.
She revealed that she wanted out, but didn't know how - so she had an affair.
She told People: "That ended the marriage, but then I was left
with a new set of crises, feeding and clothing a baby and keeping a roof over our heads."
Singer Rod Stewart has made headlines over
the years, and not just for his music.
Tabloids have long been enamored with the star, following his love life for decades.
He had children with a few different women before having two children with his third
wife, Penny Lancaster, when he was in his 60s.
His advanced age at the time of his children's birth made the news, but for years it was
not widely known that Stewart actually became a father for the first time when he was only
in his teens.
His oldest child, Sarah Streeter, was born when Stewart was just 18, before his career
had taken off, and he and his then-partner agreed to put their daughter up for adoption.
Stewart first made contact with Streeter in the 1980s, although the two didn't begin to
build a relationship until after Streeter's adoptive parents died.
He told Entertainment Tonight in 2013: "We've began to get on really well with each
other, you know.
We email each other, we keep in touch."
When Patti Smith was just 19 years old and
studying art in college, she gave birth to her first child.
Abandoned by her baby's father, Smith decided to give the baby up for adoption.
One of her professors helped her find a family to raise the child.
She later said that she knew her decision to give up her child was the right one, but
that it was a difficult period in her life, revealing on Fresh Air:
"I felt that I just wasn't ready as a human being.
I wasn't prepared, that I just was not equipped to embark on that path."
Following her daughter's birth, Smith dropped out of college and moved to New York City
where she began her career as the legendary rock icon we know today.
For reality star Evelyn Lozada, there's a
20-year age gap between her first child, Shaniece, who Evelyn had at the age of 17, and her second
child, Carl Jr.
In 2016, BET asked her what it was like being the mother of an adult and a toddler at the
same time.
"I feel like now that I'm older, I'm more in tune with motherhood.
With Shaniece, I was 17, fearless and didn't worry about anything.
He's a crazy toddler.
I'm tired.
I'm 40 years old.
He keeps me really busy."
But she still manages to keep things balanced, between keeping up with her youngest and keeping
her oldest in check.
"We need to just be smart about the things that we're doing in life.
Does that make sense?"
Before becoming a reality TV star on The Real
Housewives of Atlanta, Kim Zolciak-Biermann was a single mother working as a nurse.
She had her daughter, Brielle, when she was only 19 years old and attending college full
time.
She wrote about being a single mother in a 2016 Instagram post, sharing:
"Where the drive began, where the passion started, where the dreams begin, where the
strength came from.
My first born started it all."
Zolciak-Biermann said she was scared as a single parent, but fortunately had supportive
parents who helped her while she went to college.
She added: "No excuse to not get up and go!
Do what you can and never lose sight of your dream.
I'm certain I wouldn't be who I am if I wasn't who I was at 19!"
T.I.
Thanks to the reality show T.I. and Tiny: The Family Hustle, fans know that the celeb
has several children.
What many don't realize, however, is that T.I. was just 19 when his first son, Messiah,
was born.
The hip-hop artist had a rough childhood, and said he was happy to give his kids a better
life than the one he had.
He told People: "I stole because I couldn't afford to get
it.
But they can."
In an interview with XXL magazine, T.I. revealed that learning how to be a parent was tough
for him.
"It's something that you never really master.
[…] So you just have to be committed to it, man.
You have to be committed to it and passionate about it."
Singer Rebecca Ferguson shot to fame after
finishing as runner-up on the 2010 edition of the U.K.'s The X Factor, after living in
poverty and becoming pregnant at the age of 17.
Pregnancy was difficult for her as she never expected to have to deal with the stigma of
being a teenage mother.
She told the Mirror "I was the one everyone thought wouldn't get
pregnant because I was really quiet and shy.
It was a first boyfriend kind of thing, so people didn't see it coming.
People thought I had talent and the attitude was, 'What are you doing with your life?'
That was hard."
But her pregnancy motivated her to get her career off the ground and the rest, as they
say, is history.
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