Still, this is obviously nothing compared to the everyday challenges of these child mothers who we had the honor to meet. During this project, I often thought a lot about my own youth. What if I had become a mother back then? When I was 14, I loved horses and used to hang out in the stables. I also liked to wear makeup and listen to Prince, and I had a boyfriend who was 17.

It was not until I was 30 that I gave birth to my first child — more than twice the age of 13-year-old Angelica, whom we interviewed for this project. I had a career, a partner of my own choice, a safe place to live, and free health care, and yet I still worried about not being able to give my son everything he needed.

Angelica worries about having enough to eat. She was thrown out of the hospital during her difficult delivery because she could not pay for the care, and she has been forced to leave school. Still, she remains the center of her son Lucner's universe. But Angelica and Lucner are two children against the rest of the world.

The girls we met opened their hearts and their homes to tell us about their lives. They shared their honest stories about first love, separations, and arranged marriages; angry parents, illnesses, and utter loneliness, as well as intense feelings of joy and of pain. Some of the girls we met nearly lost their lives during their complicated deliveries. Others sadly lost their babies.