The Chicago Department of Public Health has launched ads depicting teen boys with pregnant bellies in an effort to curb teen pregnancy.

I get what they’re trying to do because for 26 years I’ve been trying to do the same. But teen advocates need to understand something that clearly the Department of Public Health doesn’t.

WHEN TALKING ABOUT SERIOUS TOPICS WITH TEENS, DON’T ACT STUPID. KIDS DON’T LIKE BEING ADDRESSED AS MORONS.

Ten years ago I was at a medical conference addressing teen pregnancy and we asked seven teens to come on stage and tell us what they thought was going on in the teen culture with regard to sexual activity.

One young girl brought her infant with her and told us that she tells her friends not to get pregnant. Another girl said that she was a virgin but didn’t get much support from her friends or doctors (how embarrassing is that?), and that she believed that she could wait until marriage for sex.

Then something remarkable happened. A young man about age 17 strutted to the front of the stage to address the hundreds of physicians and health care workers. With the waist of his jeans gripping his mid-thighs,…