Taylor Lumas has come a long way from the pregnant 15-year-old she was while appearing on 16 and Pregnant back in 2011.
Taylor, now 22, has become the third girl from the “16 and Pregnant” series to graduate college with a Bachelors degree. On May 4, Taylor announced that she was officially a college graduate with a degree in nursing. She posed for photos with her seven-year-old daughter, Aubri, whom she gave birth to on her episode of “16 and Pregnant.”
(In case you’re wondering, the other girls with Bachelors degrees are Izabella Tovar, also of Season 3, who graduated in 2016, and Teen Mom 2 star Kail Lowry, who graduated in 2017. Season 1’s Maci Bookout has an Associates degrees, as does Season 4’s Katie Yeager. Season 1’s Farrah Abraham claims to have two Bachelors degrees, although this has not been confirmed.)
Taylor was 14 when the filming of her episode began, and is the youngest girl to ever appear on “16 and Pregnant” over the course of its five seasons.
She has certainly beat the odds. According to recent NCSL.org stats, fewer than 2 percent of girls who had a baby before the age of 18 finish college by the age of 30. (Only 40 percent finish high school!)
She has also beaten another teen pregnancy statistic. One in five teen moms has a second baby by the age of 20, but Taylor, at 22, still only has one child. In fact, she is the only girl from “16 and Pregnant” Season 3 who has not had a second pregnancy.
In an interview with The Ashley in 2016, Taylor explained why she did not get pregnant again after having Aubri.
“I was so young [when I had my baby] and I didn’t want to have more responsibility than I already had,” Taylor told The Ashley. “I struggle with one kid, I can’t imagine having another! I never put myself in that situation though, I used birth control.”
She also speculated why so many of the girls from “16 and Pregnant” had second (or third) children so soon after appearing on the show.
“My guess is that the other girls want their kids to be about the same age. I think it’s that maybe things are going well in their lives at that moment, so they want to have another kid,” she added. “I was content with my one! If I have another kid, Aubrey will be at least 10.”
My greatest accomplishment and best friend? pic.twitter.com/nq4ddi9jNE
— ●Tay is Bae● (@Miss_Tay16) June 10, 2017
Taylor recently tweeted that she has been watching MTV’s newest teen parenthood show, Teen Mom: Young and Pregnant.
“My heart legit breaks when I watch these girls on young and pregnant,” she wrote on Tuesday. “Just knowing how much they’re hurting in that moment/situation. Don’t miss those days!”
To read The Ashley recap of Taylor’s “16 and Pregnant” episode from 2011, click here!
To find out what the other girls from “16 and Pregnant” are up to, click here!
(Photos: Twitter, MTV)
25 Responses
She had another baby just look at her tweets she was talking about spilled breast milk and maternity leave from her job the baby was born in 2019
Considering she was the youngest mother to be featured on “16 and pregnant”(she found out she was pregnant at 14 and started filming the week of her 15th bday) and her mother said that she was going to be a failure, but look at her now only one kid and the only girl in her season to have one kid, no drama, and it seems like she puts her child first. All I can say is good job Taylor
Her mother never said she’d be a failure, that’s ridiculous. She just tried to tell her how hard it was going to be to have a baby. This girl even admitted she didn’t understand how difficult raising a kid is and gets where her mom was coming from.
Good for her!! I had a 1 year old when I graduated college. Keep up the great work!!
Didn’t ashley Salazar graduate in Texas?
Her daughter will be so proud of her. I’m sure she already is, but even more so when she’s older and understands how hard her mom has worked to give her a good stable life.
Wow this has pleasantly shocked me! Her episode of 16 and pregnant was pretty bad, because she was so so young. Seems like her daughter was truly motivation for her to succeed in life! Congrats to her!
i remember her episode for her saying she wanted to see ‘the 1st time they fell down the stairs’..glad she did good.
Good on ya girl, that’s fantastic! I never realised Taylor was so young at the time. I am so so glad to see a rare example of a girl taking the impact of teen parenthood as the kick-up-the-ass that it should be. She is a shining example of a teenage parent, in both her attitudes and her achievements. Aubri is a lucky little girl to have such a great mother to look up to.
Wowza, congratulations! Also on saying her daughter will be at least 10 before she has another baby, never saw her episode but she seems to have her head on the right place. Good thinking Taylor!
Congrats! I wasn’t a teen mom. I gave birth at 23. But i was in the middle of working 2 jobs to put my boyfriend (now husband) through college. I was accepted into the nursing program when my son was 3 months old. It was super hard. But now 10 years and 2 kids later, i have a job i love soo much and my husband has his dream job as well. You get what you work for not what you wish for.
This is an awesome article! I love hearing about the girls not becoming a statistic. My children are 12 years apart and have the best sibling relationship ever. Nice work Taylor. Aim high!!
Way to go, Taylor! She is truly an example of hard work and dedication paying off. Nursing school is hard and very demanding. Taylor has chosen an excellent, stable career that will allow her to support herself and her daughter; best of all, she’s being a great role model for Aubri and showing her that education is of utmost importance. I liked her on her 16&P episode and the one catch up special I saw with her, she was very honest about the struggles of teen parenting, especially co-parenting with Aubri’s dad after they broke up and also the financial aspect. She spoke about Aubri having some heart problems as an infant and how they would have been absolutely lost without her mother’s insurance to help pay for her medical bills. She didn’t sugarcoat anything but it was clear that she was determined to be a good mother.
I also applaud Taylor’s mother for being very realistic with Taylor when she was pregnant and after Aubri was born. She also stayed home with Aubri all day after working nightshift, so that Taylor could go to school. That little girl is so lucky to have two very strong women to look up to!
Great to hear that a few of the 16 and pregnant girls went on to be productive adults. I think a lot of credit goes to her mom. If I remember correctly she sacrificed a lot for her to go back to school because she wanted her child to graduate and do better than she did. Sure she will get a job easily although she will likely need to have help from her family for childcare because of shift work.
It’s nice to read about a 16&P success story for a change. As others have said, her life should be profiled on MTV to show what a teen mom who doesn’t have a reality TV paycheck goes through. She preserved and beat the odds.
* persevered, not preserved.
I am so grateful for those who choose to become nurses and doctors as I could NEVER handle the responsibility and pressure of that career & lifestyle, and we need them! Congratulations to Taylor, it sounds like she really did beat the odds and has grown up strong and smart!!!
Congratulations! What a smart girl!
Congrats to her! Graduating college is extremely difficult and something to be celebrated, even without a child. I can’t imagine how she did it. I think she was still in 8th grade when she got pregnant if I remember her episode correctly. Craziness. What a role model in the end though.
This makes me so happy! She was SO young when she had Aubri and her episode was so hard to watch for that reason alone. Wish MTV would at least do catch up specials with the girls who are actually good role models. Like, “Hey, congrats on never having another pregnancy, and graduating both high school and college, we’d like to pay you to do a catch-up special to show how far you’ve come, and you can use the money to help pay your student loans!”
So proud of her! These are the kind of stories that should be on TV.
Good for her! She seemed like a smart cookie in her episode
Wow! Congrats! Not an easy feat at all. Keep doing well, Taylor!
This warms my heart. She and her family should be over the moon with pride. I agree MTV needs to do a feature of some sort just to showcase the TRUE reality of teen parenthood: working, going to school, and juggling motherhood without a big fat paycheck from a tv show. Congrats to Taylor and her beautiful daughter on this awesome accomplishment!
Good for her! That’s awesome. Nursing programs are demanding, too. She must have worked her butt off to finish her degree in 4 years. MTV should do a little featurette on her. Way to go, Taylor.