The Teen Moms of Romania, in Photos

Photographer Ioana Cîrlig started capturing young mothers of Romania in 2012. She was living in a small mining town called Brad, working on a photographic project about the industrial heritage of the country, when she met 16-year old Gina on the street. Gina had a one-year-old girl and became the first teenage mother Cîrlig met in the remote mining region.

"I started visiting Gina and her daughter and photographing their everyday life," Cîrlig remembers. "After that I met another teenage mom, and another. I started researching and found out that according to the United Nations Population Fund's report, Motherhood in childhood: Facing the challenge of adolescent pregnancy, Romania has the highest rate of teenage mothers in Europe, with 10.6 percent of mothers younger than 20 years."

Over the last three years, Cîrlig photographed teenage girls from the small mining towns of Brad, Petrila and Vulcan. Largely deindustrialized, today the towns exist in deprived economic conditions. "[These] mining towns have a specific atmosphere, some of the small ones feel like they've stopped changing in the late 80s", the photographer says. "The economic conditions are dire in most places. Without a reconversion plan, mono-industrial cities are left jobless after the industrial center closes down. In places where new business are created, the owners offer minimum wage for most of the staff, knowing they don't have a choice."

Lack of jobs and financial difficulties are not the only challenges teenage mothers face in these remote communities. A lot of pressure comes from within their traditionalist societies and sometimes from people who are the closest to them. "The traditions and gender conventions there are still strong. Women have to listen to their men," Cîrlig says. "There is no sex education in schools and in underprivileged communities girls don't have access to real information and guidance. Lacking a support system at home, they can become targets for sexual predators.

"Many of them are part of a vicious circle of abuse. Most of the girls I photographed were single at the time, after getting out of abusive relationships. It was hard for them because they were judged, some of them even by their own families. They were advised to be good and just take it. Luckily they were strong and brave enough to leave."

In her photographs, Cîrlig captures a fragile and intimate world where her teenage heroines are free from hardship and judgement. The camera traces real life—barely furnished rooms, washing drying in the sun, flower patterns on an armchair—yet the shots radiate with the gentle glow of the trustworthy relationships Cîrlig nurtures with her subjects.

"I met the first two young mothers by chance and then, as I began feeling that this could become a story, I started looking for them," she explains. "It's easier with natural, chance encounters than when you try and create a relationship with a specific type of 'character.'

"At first they were shy and a bit ashamed, afraid that they would be judged. Once we became close the girls trusted me and were happy to have a friend, someone that listened. I still keep in touch with some of them and visit when I'm in town."

Looking through Cîrlig's photos, it's hard not to notice the appearance of artefacts and symbols of girlhood: tender shades of pink, teddy bears, a pony balloon, a tiara. The objects we're used to seeing in suburban girls' bedrooms acquire different meanings in the context of deprived Romanian towns. For the young girls who had to go through the challenge of motherhood so early, they are tokens of a safe dream world.

"I deliberately tried to photograph the girliness, I love it," Cîrlig says. "They have pink rooms, stuffed toys, tiaras, balloons, confetti, pink wigs. They play, they like to on put make up on, curl their hair and dress nicely, as we all do. They are also mothers. I looked for ways to visually suggest this mix: they are teenagers who had to grow up faster."

Young Mothers is one example of a visual female narrative which would have otherwise been lost without a trace. "I am drawn to women characters," says Cîrlig. "I like spending a lot of time with the people I photograph and with women it's much more natural. It's easier for me to get close to a woman or a girl and really relate to their problems, create a connection."