Film missed the most important part..... (spoilers)

Huh?

The film ended right when she was about to leave the hospital with the baby. Her family was all together, and everyone was happy in that moment. At that point, slow motion set in, along with sad music, and Tina's narration. She says that from here on out, she doesn't know what will happen. All she knows is that she'll be a mom for the rest of her life, and that babies are great, if you're ready. The end.

The main point of that ending was to show that her future is up in the air. She's only 15, and is already a mother. She'll need to work extremely hard to have the life she wants. The movie ends there, and doesn't show what happens next. That would require a whole other movie.

The ending is completely believable, because her future is unknown, as well as scary. That is exactly how it is for a teen mother... or any new mother, come to think of it!

I agree with you, OP. Big lovefest at the end, with a dollop of uncertainty, mitigated by determination: Pffft. Thanks, movie, that's a terrific lesson to be spreading.

I watched many television episodes of "16 and Pregnant," which is kind of weird because I have zero dogs in that hunt.

That show did a pretty good job of showing young mothers with newborns at the point where expectations meet harsh reality. The gradually disappearing boyfriend, the permanent and relentless exhaustion, the inevitable estrangement from friends who still want to be silly and hang out at the mall, education sinking lower and lower as a priority, resentment from family members who suddenly have to shoulder massive responsibility for taking care of an infant. . .etc.

Yikes. I was wondering if we shouldn't start sneaking birth control into the high school ventilators.

But straight across the board, the parents and the teens repeated Park Overall's statement from the movie that she "wouldn't feel right" letting someone else raise a member of her family. Really? All those thousands of loving couples with time, stability and the maturity to provide a baby with every opportunity in the world--they don't even rate a little consideration in the "what would be right" discussion?

That was the truly courageous move I was hoping to see at the end of the movie.

Well, anyway, I apologize to anyone offended. As I said, I don't know any teenagers I can lecture personally, so I did it here.