Lynne Spears says the public had a “totally different reaction” to the teen pregnancies of her daughter Jamie Lynn and Sarah Palin’s daughter Bristol. “It’s as if [Sarah Palin] became celebrated,” Lynne told Newsweek. “I mean, the mother, Palin, was celebrated for this. Every woman in the world has applauded her strength and her convictions and poor little old Jamie Lynn, you saw how she was crucified – everybody did, firsthand,” Lynne said. “I just feel like it’s been a very hypocritical situation.” In December, Jamie Lynn, the star of Nickelodeon’s Zoey 101 was 16 when she announced her pregnancy. She gave birth to daughter Maddie in June at the age of 17. In August, Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee, revealed that her 17-year-old daughter is expecting and engaged. “Do I promote teen sex? Of course not,” Lynne told Newsweek. “Do I promote teen pregnancy? Needless to say, of course not. But when it happens, you deal with it and you do the best you can do. Jamie Lynn has done beautifully with what she’s done,” Lynne said. “Could every other teenager do what Jamie Lynn has done?” asked Lynne. “No indeed.” Lynne also rebutted criticism that Jamie Lynn glamorized teen pregnancy. “We don’t want this said, ’cause this would be glamorizing, but I will tell you a secret: her baby does sleep all night,” Lynne explained. “What do you think about those apples? Maddie is the best baby I have ever seen,” Lynne added. “She is like a little angel. She’s so contented. She laughs and she coos and ahead of herself with her stages. But of course we can’t tell that because then we would just glamorize it more.” Lynne, the author of a tell-all memoir titled Through the Storm, told Newsweek that she “really can’t give advice” to the Palin family. “Everybody’s situation is different,” she said. “I would never tell anybody else what to do with their child. I would never attempt to make them think I knew more about their child. Even if they were to ask, I would tell them dig deep, what do you think?”

You know, I noticed this same sort of thing myself … while I don’t consider both situations absolutely identical, I can absolutely sympathize with Lynne’s contention that her family was treated more unfairly. I, personally, was very surprised at how applauded the Palin family was by their own conservative political party. It has been my estimation that social conservatives are the ones to start throwing stones first whenever a public figure suffers a very public human fault like this … and yet the Palins were celebrated for their “strength”. The Spears family, tho, were vilified and horribly criticized in comparison. I see her point and I think she has a valid one. Do y’all think that there was a disparity in fair treatment between the similar family situations? If so, is it justified?

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