A teen mum who had three babies by the age of 19 said she used hateful comments as motivation to improve her family’s life – and jokes that her 40s are going to be “lit”.
Bella Davis faced judgement, backlash and hatred after getting pregnant aged just 17, but went on to welcome two more children in quick succession, all before turning 20.
She and her partner, Reason Robison, who are now engaged, share Polaris Bear, three, Centauri Sol, two, and Slade Clay, 11 months.
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“[We faced] a lot of judgement and always being looked down on,” Bella, now 21, from Salt Lake City, Utah, told Need To Know.
“But it pushed us to work harder and much faster.
“Overall, it has been a better thing for our family.
“I feel we are far more mature at our age than others.
“Plus, our kids will all be grown while we are still young.”
She also jokes that their 40s will look starkly different to their peers after “missing their 20s”.
The content creator was living with her mum in her grandparents’ basement when she and fiance Reason discovered they were about to be parents for the first time.
She said: “I was very sick but I always just brushed it off as being anything but pregnancy.
“We were nervous and shocked.”
Bella moved out at 17, while pregnant, just months after her father passed away.
Bella added: “Reason and I are hard workers and we knew we could support and provide for our child on our own, so we did.”
Despite her family being supportive, Bella could tell “a lot” of them were judging her.
The couple has faced many challenges during their teen parenting journey, including hearing “so many things” that they ended up doubting themselves.
According to Bella, she regularly heard nasty comments throughout her pregnancy, including “your life is over” and “he’s gonna leave before you have the baby”.
Others told her she “ruined his [her partner’s] life” and she “should have kept [her] legs closed”.
She added: “I mostly laughed at the comments because I knew they weren’t true and were just assumptions made mostly by sad people with no kids.
“I live by the motto, ‘Let them’.”
Bella was left isolated during her pregnancy, distanced from other women her age, missing parties and events, with only two close friends sticking by her during that time.
But she added the friends she lost were never real friends to begin with.
And she’s still shooting for the stars with her childhood ambition of becoming an astronaut.
She added: “I didn’t listen to others and I took my life into my own hands.
“We were going to be astronauts together and we still are, but just a little later in life.
“When our kids are older, we will continue on with our big dreams.”
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