Get pregnant. Cry once, sort of. Hand the baby over to a rich, loving woman, and then you can spend the rest of your high school career with your boyfriend singing a love duet while strumming the guitar on the porch steps.

This is the hit movie "Juno" -- teen pregnancy, Hollywood style.

Then, there is reality.

Ana Gordillo, of Boulder, was 15 when she found out she was four months along. That day, she dropped out of high school. She was shocked and embarrassed. After a stranger on the street pointed at her belly and scolded her for being too young, Gordillo spent most of the remainder of her pregnancy depressed and locked in her bedroom.

Today, Gordillo -- now 19 -- her boyfriend and her 2½-year-old daughter, Giovanna, live in their own apartment. And after a year off, Gordillo went back to finish high school. She plans on graduating in May and getting married in July.

She says she is figuring life out with the help of local teen-parenting groups, and the people who run those groups call her a success story. But even so, wrapping up her teen momhood wasn't quite a silver-screen cutesy ending of duets and guitars.

Of course, Gordillo's story isn't the tale of every young mother, and neither is "Juno."

No one has ever called the movie -- which is up for four statues at tonight's Academy Awards, including best picture -- an accurate documentary. It's a comedy. In fact, Sue Hutchinson with the San Jose Mercury News recently called it a "teen fantasy film" because it's so far-fetched.

But that's exactly what has some people worried. Some question whether it feeds impressionable teenagers an oversimplified and glorified spin on teen parenthood.

Combine that with 16-year-old Nickelodeon actress Jamie Lynn Spears' high-profile pregnancy, which has all but elevated the younger sister of Britney Spears to hero status in the eyes of some starlets. (Take "All My Children" actress Level Rambin, who gushed, "I just think it's awesome that she's having a baby.")

Not to mention pregnancy themes in show such as "Gossip Girl" and "Degrassi: The Next Generation," and the new NBC reality series "The Baby Borrowers," which follows a teenage couple trying to raise someone else's "borrowed" children for a few weeks.

Now consider the fact that U.S. teen birth rates jumped 3 percent in 2006 for the first time in 15 years. Stats from 2007 aren't available yet, but whether Hollywood is reflecting a trend or helping shape one, the numbers suggest something might be going on.

All this has spurred some media to question whether "babies are the new handbag." Headlines read, "Suddenly teen pregnancy is cool?" and "Teen pregnancy: hip or blip?"

The mere question drops 17-year-old Nikki Chiu's jaw.

"Cool?" she repeats, as if trying to digest the idea.

"I don't know why you would say that it's ever the cool thing to do," she says. "It's not something you should look up to or aspire to at this age."

Not only because of the challenges it can bring into the young parents' lives, but also because of the impact on the babies. Statistics show that the children of teen parents are at a higher risk for a long list of struggles, including becoming teen parents themselves, living in poverty and dropping out of high school.

Granted, as a senior at Monarch High School, Chiu is a little sheltered from the scene. She has never been pregnant, and she can barely think of any students who were. If so, they quickly transferred to the teen parent program at Fairview High across Boulder County, and out of the Louisville high school's halls.

"Since people aren't exposed to it as much here, they think it's wrong, despite what's going on in Hollywood," she says.

Still, about 600 teens participate in the local Genesis program for teen parents every year.

With sexual education and contraceptives more prevalent than ever before, the sudden jump in teen birth rates has Chiu baffled.

If the prevention methods are available, she wonders, could that mean the pregnancies are, in fact, wanted?

Experts say it's too early to claim the statistics indicate a trend. They also note that pregnancy rates at all ages increased in 2006, indicating it's not just a teen phenomenon.

Cool or not, it's hard to deny the stigma is shifting, says Bill Albert, deputy director with the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy in Washington, D.C.

"It used to be that Sally went away for the summer. That doesn't really happen anymore," Albert says, referring to the idea of sending a pregnant teen out of town until she gave birth.

In light of the Hollywood hype, and to see just how much the stigma has changed, Chiu wants to gauge society's reactions first-hand. The Louisville senior, who writes for her high-school newspaper, plans to spend a day in public -- at the mall, in restaurants -- wearing a fake pregnant belly. She plans to write an editorial about her experience for the March edition of The Howler. Chiu says she has no idea what to expect.

Blaire Young, youth services director with Boulder Valley Women's Health Center, says it's an overstatement to think perceptions have changed that much. Yes, Boulder County offers many resources to support sexually active and parenting teens, but she says it seems like teen pregnancy is still "demonized."

She notes Republican Rep. Larry Liston, of Colorado Springs, who recently called unmarried teen parents "sluts."

"There's no sense of shame today," Liston said, according to the Colorado Springs Gazette. "Society condones it."

Jody Scanlon thinks it's all coincidence.

"Because a celebrity is a pregnant teen and because 'Juno' is up for an Academy Award there is more attention, but I hesitate to put any sociological importance on it," Scanlan says. "It's coincidental."

Scanlan is the program coordinator for Genesis, run by Boulder County Public Health. She underscores the larger picture: a consistent drop in teen birth rates since the '90s.

"The issue of teen pregnancy is tied into so many deeper issues," she says. Intergenerational cycles of poverty. Family history. Community resources.

"It's a difficult problem to untangle, and the media is just one piece of that," Scanlan says. "Certainly not the most significant piece."

She hopes parents use the media hype as a catalyst for a deeper conversation with their children about sexuality and family planning.

That's what 19-year-old Ana Gordillo hopes, too.

"The hardest thing about being a teen mom was having questions," she says. "I wasn't comfortable asking. I was too shy."

If nothing else, Gordillo says she hopes "Juno" and Jamie Lynn Spears spark discussions and critical thinking.

"Something good can come out of this," Gordillo says.

For the teens who are watching from the outside, as well as for teen mothers like Jamie Lynn, Gordillo says.

"That's how we can get support, and that's how we can make it," she says.

Contact Camera Staff Writer Aimee Heckel at 303-473-1359 or heckela@dailycamera.com.