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Childhood and Forced Motherhood

Editorial illustration about forced motherhood and reproductive rights.

Young girl curled up beside a red wardrobe in a dark room, with faint outlines of domestic objects

Births to girls under 14 keep rising in the region, harming their mental and physical health and their development. Meanwhile, states deny them their sexual and reproductive rights. This work was commissioned by Mutante.org and published in El Espectador (Colombia), GK, Wambra Medio Digital Comunitario (Ecuador), Ojo Público (Perú), Nómada (Guatemala), and Managua Furiosa (Nicaragua). Read the full investigation here (in Spanish).

Client
Mutante.org
Role
Illustration
Category
Editorial
Collection
Article page titled América Latina: una región de niñas embarazadas, with an illustration of a seated girl

Excerpt from Lía Valero’s reporting for Child Mothers After five years researching the subject, what struck the author most was how naturally pregnant girls are spoken to as if they were adults, while being treated as girls with no capacity for decision or autonomy. We carry the idea that motherhood is perfect in our DNA, especially in Latin America. But we forget that they are still girls.

Illuminated bed seen from above in a dark room, with two figures under a patterned cover

Excerpt from Lía Valero’s reporting for Child Mothers “Sometimes I feel sad about what happens to me, and I wonder why my dad did this to me.”

Girl sitting with her knees drawn up beside a pink chest of drawers in a dim room

Image index

Credits

Text by
Lia Valero
Illustrations
Catalina Vásquez
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