Lifetime Tackles Teen Pregnancy and Stereotyping With Original Movie 'The Pregnancy Project'

On the heels of its successful 2010 movie The Pregnancy Pact, Lifetime will again take a hard look at how the nation views teenage pregnancy with The Pregnancy Project, an original movie based on the true story of Gaby Rodriguez, the 18-year-old Washington state high school student who pretended to be pregnant in an effort to explore conventional stereotypes and the treatment of pregnant teens. Alexa Vega (Spy Kids, Lifetime's Odd Girl Out) and Judy Reyes (Scrubs, Lifetime's Little Girl Lost: The Delimar Vera Story) star in the film, which will make its world premiere on Saturday, January 28, 2012 at 8:00PM ET/PT.

In The Pregnancy Project, Gaby Rodriguez (Vega) is the brave 18-year-old high school student who forces her school and community to confront its prejudices and preconceptions about teen pregnancy -- and makes national headlines in the process. The story begins with Gaby deciding that her senior project will be on stereotyping, which she decides to experience firsthand. Confiding in her mother Juana (Reyes), her boyfriend Jorge (Walter Perez) and a handful of others, Gaby begins her social experiment in which she tells her friends, family and teachers that she is pregnant. While her fake baby bump continues to grow over the next six-and-a-half months, Gaby carefully records how she is treated and what is being said about her - for better and for worse -- both in and out of school. With her project's findings conclusive, Gaby emotionally addresses her fellow students and their teachers about stereotyping and teen pregnancy during a special school assembly and then shocks them by ripping off her padded "baby bump," revealing she was never pregnant at all and teaching them a valuable lesson.

The Pregnancy Project is executive produced by Barbara Lieberman (Lifetime's The 19th Wife and Murder in the Hamptons), Tom Patricia (Lifetime's Dawn Anna and Homeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story), Sharlene Martin and Anne Bremner. Norman Buckley (Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars) directed the screenplay by Teena Booth (Lifetime's The Pregnancy Pact and Lifetime Movie Network's Natalee Holloway). The movie is based on the book The Pregnancy Project: A Memoir (Simon & Schuster) by Gaby Rodriguez with Jenna Glatzer.

Alexa Vega is best known for her role as "CarmenCortez" in the box-office hits Spy Kids, Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams, Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over and Spy Kids: All the Time in the World in 4D. Additional film credits include From Prada to Nada, Mother's Day, Repo! The Genetic Opera, State's Evidence, Sleepover, The Deep End of the Ocean, Ghosts of Mississippi, The Glimmer Man and Twister. Vega's television credits include the series The Middle, Ruby & the Rockits and Ghost Whisperer, as well as the movies Odd Girl Out for Lifetime, Follow the Stars Home for CBS and Run the Wild Fields for Showtime.

Judy Reyes, best known for her leading role as the sassy, no-nonsense nurse Carla Espinosa on the Emmy? Award-nominated comedy Scrubs, was recently on the silver screen alongside Esai Morales in the film Gun Hill Road. She landed her first major acting role in the independent feature Jack and His Friends, opposite Sam Rockwell, followed by roles in Dirty, Went to Coney Island on a Mission From God, Be Back at Five, King of the Jungle and Glow Ropes: The Rise and Fall of a Bar Mitzvah Emcee. Reyes' additional television credits include a star turn in the Lifetime Movie Network film, Little Girl Lost: The Delimar Vera Story. She also had a recurring role as Tina on the acclaimed HBO series Oz and has appeared in The Sopranos, Third Watch, NYPD Blue and Law & Order, among others.

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