Fox Searchlight Pictures Celebrity pregnancies such as that of Jamie Lynn Spears, left, and movies like "Juno," above, may be skewing teen girls' opinions about the difficulties of childbirth and parenting, an advice columnist says.

News that 17 girls at a Massachusetts high school became pregnant this year is raising questions about whether pregnancy has become alluring to teens.

Many teen pregnancies still take place against a backdrop of economic distress or a search for love, experts say; that's been the case for years.

But counselors say they now are also concerned about a combination of factors that may make it easier for teens to become sexually active without understanding the potential consequences: Glamour shots of pregnant celebrities are featured in magazines and on TV alongside increasingly sexualized fashions.

Nationwide, the teen birth rate rose 3 percent from 2005 to 2006, the most recent year with data available, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That was the first increase recorded since 1991, though federal officials said it might be a one-year statistical blip.

Some say teens' understanding of pregnancy and parenthood may be skewed by real-life celebrity pregnancies as well as recent films.

Today's teen girls absorb coverage of their favorite actresses and singers voraciously: A report issued by Experian Consumer Research found that 23 percent of teen girls surveyed in 2004 had read Us Weekly in the previous six months, compared with 6 percent in 2000.

Front and center in those celebrity magazines: Babies and their fashionable mamas.

Barely a week goes by without some kind of celebrity baby coverage — speculation about "baby bumps;" coverage of swanky celebrity baby showers; and of course, loving pictures of the babies themselves, often with their adoring, perfectly styled moms.

Carol Weston, who writes an advice column for Girls' Life magazine, said the glamorous images of pregnant celebrities can inspire young girls to become mothers. Teens get the idea that pregnancy is fun, said Weston, author of "Girltalk: All the Stuff Your Sister Never Told You."

Kimberly Hughes, 16, from Glen Rock, N.J., who reads US Weekly, People and CosmoGIRL!, agreed.

"I like reading the stories. It's really interesting seeing the lives of celebrities. It seems to be so easy for them, but in reality, it's not like that for them at all," she said.

Magazine editors say celebrity pregnancy has always been news.

"People has been covering and celebrating celebrity babies for over 34 years, from Cher and Greg Allman's son to Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony's twins," the magazine said. "Our readers have come to expect these kinds of intimate family moments in the pages of the magazine."

Movies also can influence teens, Weston said. After "Juno," an Oscar-winning 2007 movie about a high school student who becomes pregnant, came out, Weston said she received lots of letters from teens who wanted to have babies.

Weston said girls may not realize that most stories don't end like Juno's, who found a beautiful, rich woman to take care of her baby and still kept her boyfriend.

The Hollywood endings suggest that the U.S. is not taking pregnancy seriously enough, said Bill Albert, spokesman for the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.

"To me, it just seems like another choice in life," he said. "Like, What color clothes am I going to wear on Friday? What movie am I going to go to? Should I have a baby?' "

Of course, no one thinks teens are having babies because they saw a pretty big-bellied woman in a magazine, but if the problem is pop culture, perhaps part of the answer is, too. NBC's new reality series, "The Baby Borrowers," features young couples tasked with taking care of babies, toddlers, preteens, teens and senior citizens. The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy worked with NBC on the show and also created a special discussion guide.