A model on the November cover of Teen Vogue is a 19-year-old who reveals in the magazine that she is pregnant.Jourdan Dunn is not visibly pregnant on the cover, and Teen Vogue Editor-in-Chief Amy Astley said in news reports that the magazine didn’t know about Dunn’s pregnancy until after the photo shoot. But she said that editors didn’t consider pulling the cover Dunn shares with fellow model Chanel Iman.   

“Teen pregnancy is a difficult, real-life issue that Teen Vogue readers (with an average age of 18) are mature enough to be exposed to,” Astley said in a statement.

According to an AP wire report, the cover has raised eyebrows among some parents, teens and advocates against teen pregnancy. Many advocates said parents should use the cover as a way to talk to their kids about sex and the importance of planning pregnancies for the right moment in their lives.

“Teen parenting isn’t glamorous, even if you are a teen model,” said Valerie Huber, executive director of the National Abstinence Education Association. The magazine should be used as a teachable moment because the media and popular culture help shape “the social script for teenagers,” said Bill Albert, a spokesman for the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.

“It shapes what they think is cool, is not cool, what’s in, what’s out, what’s acceptable, what seems to be the social norm,” he said. “It’s not the only influence and I’d suggest not the most powerful, but it is an influence.”

But parents, he said, shouldn’t underestimate their own power.

“Young people tell us time and time again that parents - not the media, not their partners, not their peers - parents most influence their decisions about sex,” he said.

Jill Taylor, chair of the women and gender studies department at Simmons College in Boston, said that she would have liked to have seen the magazine use the model’s pregnancy to provide more information about teen pregnancy.

“Fourteen and 15-year-olds reading it don’t have an idea how hard it is for most single mothers having babies. She’s got resources,” Taylor said.

That difference between Dunn and most teens could be a starting point for a discussion about timing.

Um, she’s a Vogue cover model. I think most teens understand the differences.