YouTuber Sophia Grace has responded to critics who have claimed that she’s not old enough to have a child.
The 19-year-old opened up about her pregnancy during a recent interview with E! News, after announcing that she is expecting in a video shared to her YouTube channel over the weekend. During her interview, Grace, who first rose to fame in 2011 on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, addressed online critics’ “different opinions” about her having a child at her age.
“I feel like 19 is quite young, obviously, to have a baby,” she said. “Usually most people are like: ‘You should have babies when you’re 30 and you’re married and you live in your own house,’ which is completely fine. But obviously everyone’s gonna have their different opinions.”
Grace went on to explain why her “age” doesn’t matter, and how excited she is to be welcoming her baby.
“I just feel it’s about the person themselves,” she shared. “And as long as you feel ready and it’s something that you’re happy about, then it’s really no one else’s problem.”
Despite some of the online criticism, the YouTube star detailed how “lovely” it’s been to receive “supportive comments” from women who’ve said that they also had children at her age.
“It really makes me feel happy when I see other girls comment that,” she continued. “It really, really makes me so more confident.”
She went on to confess how “overwhelmed” she has felt throughout her pregnancy, before opening up about the support she’s received from her loved ones.
“You think about like: ‘How am I going to know how to do this? How am I going to learn how to carry the baby properly?’ It’s kind of scary,” Grace explained. “My family and friends are so supportive. I’m sure that I will help so much. So I feel really confident about it now.”
In her YouTube vlog shared on 22 October, the former child star revealed that she was 21 weeks pregnant, noting that she wanted to make sure that “everything [was] completely fine” before sharing the news.
She also addressed how she’d be handling any unkind responses to her video, explaining: “Make sure to comment nice things only. Don’t want any negative comments, negative comments will be getting deleted and blocked.”
Elsewhere in her interview withE!, Grace noted that, while she’s publicly announced her pregnancy, she’s keeping her relationship with her longtime boyfriend, who she’ll be raising her child with, “private”.
“Because I have always been in the spotlight, I feel like I want something just to keep to myself,” she said. “Just something that I can keep private and that I can just enjoy myself and not have to share it with everyone.”
However, she also said that, when the time comes, she would be open to posting more content of her partner on her YouTube channel.
“I would be completely happy to share him and I would be completely happy for him to be in my videos,” Grace added, “But I feel like when he’s confident enough to be in them, then maybe we could do that and it’ll be really fun.”
