This week’s Teen Mom was all about identity, especially for Farrah and Maci. A lot of teens aren’t totally sure who they are, but being a teen mom only adds to the confusion. Are you a student, a mother, a daughter, a teen, an adult? It’s hard to play all the roles, and really confusing when you’re expected to play them at the same time.

When I look back at old photos from my time in middle school, everything my friends and I wore, watched, or cared about seems so silly to me now. Even in the last year, I have changed my mind dozens of times about what I want to do after college. Growing up is a time of constantly changing perspectives, and being a teen means you’re allowed to dream of being an actress, a doctor, and a writer in the same week.

For better or worse, there are a lot of new things going on in the lives of the Teen Mom girls this week! We’ve got puppies, custody battles, birthday parties, and birth mom bonding sessions coming your way.

Okay, so I know I sound like a broken record on this blog sometimes, but having a baby as a teen really means putting your life on hold. School, social life, even your future goals have to change when an unplanned pregnancy turns everything upside down.

This season Teen Mom is all about the girl's transition into adulthood after putting their teen lives on hold. If 16 and Pregnant and the first Teen Mom seasons were about learning to be a mom, this season is about learning to be an adult. Big changes face all four girls, like Farrah's graduation, Maci's life with Kyle while balancing Ryan, Amber's police case and Catelynn's desire to move forward with her life. Their babies threw their lives off track, and now they just trying to get themselves back on schedule.

We all feel consumed by stress sometimes. Being a teenager is hard work, no matter what anyone says, and trying to balance school, grades, parents, boyfriends, and money is hard work, especially when you’re still trying to find yourself.  There’s a lot of pressure to grow up, find a job, and be an adult, but a lot of high school or college students still feel like kids at heart. With all these conflicting emotions, it’s really hard to stay positive all the time. For the girls on Teen Mom, they have the challenge of raising a child while battling all of the emotional stress that comes with being a young adult.

For most teenagers, dating the wrong person or having an angry outburst are mistakes we all make, and can actually help us grow as people. But what if one bad decision as a teenager (say, having unprotected sex?) changed your life forever? This week’s Teen Mom was all about the consequences of being a young mother. The girls are faced with obstacles that might not have been there if they hadn’t gotten pregnant.

Wow, I didn’t think it was possible for me to get so weepy over a television show. The adoption episodes of 16 and Pregnant are always the most gut-wrenching, so it’s only natural that the reunion special required a box of tissues as well.

Finally, Teen Mom is back to catch us up on the original cast—Farrah, Maci, Catelynn, and Amber—as they struggle with relationships, moving out, and the terrible-two’s. In case you didn’t catch the season premiere this week, here’s what you missed:

Wow, what an intense finale for this season of 16 and Pregnant! This year we’ve met all kinds of girls from all over the county and learned about the different struggles they’ve gone through as pregnant teenagers. But this season finale, featuring Allie, was especially heartbreaking.

If there was one thing that drives me crazy on 16 and Pregnant, it would have to be: where are the dads?! Not only will a baby not make him stay (8 in 10 teen dads don't marry the mother of their child) but a baby won't even make him change a diaper.