'They thought I was nuts': Meet the high school student who faked her own pregnancy - for a social experiment



Most students are happy to choose a conventional topic for their senior year project.

But aspiring social worker Gaby Rodriguez was determined to do something a little more challenging for hers, even if it meant lying to her whole school.

So the 17-year-old student from Washington State faked her own pregnancy, spending months wearing a fake belly to convince her friends - and gather their reactions.

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Moment of truth: Gaby Rodriguez removes her homemade bump after pretending to be pregnant for six-and-a-half months

Only a handful of people, including her mother, her boyfriend, and the school's principal, knew her burgeoning baby bump was in fact made from wire mesh and cotton quilting.

Her older brothers, the school's teachers and all the students aside from her best friend had been convinced she was pregnant - as had her boyfriend's parents.



Gaby said: 'At times, I just wanted to take it off and be done. I didn't want to go through this any more.'

She unveiled the truth - quite literally - on Wednesday, when she took off her fake bump in front of the entire student body at Toppenish High School in a presentation called 'stereotypes, rumours and statistics'.

Gaby decided to carry out the experiment as part of her senior project, which every student must pass in order to graduate.



Unveiling: 17-year-old Gaby - with her bump - gives a presentation on 'stereotypes, rumours and statistics' before revealing the truth about her pregnancy

But Gaby didn't reveal her secret until she had shocked the audience by listing some of the stereotypes and rumours she had heard about herself during the six-and-a-half months she had supposedly been pregnant.



She said: 'Many things were said about me. Many things travelled all the way back to me.'

One by one, students and teachers read out pre-prepared cards with some of the comments she had heard since she announced her pregnancy at the beginning of the school year.

Her best friend, Saida Cortes, who knew about the experiment, read card number three: 'Her attitude is changing, and it might be because of the baby or she was always this annoying and I never realized it.'

The hall fell silent as more and more of the cards read out, until she finally lifted off her fake belly and said: 'I'm fighting against those stereotypes and rumours because the reality is I'm not pregnant.'

She first had the idea in biology class last year, and impressed her teachers with her determination to go through with it.

Supportive: Gaby's boyfriend, Jorge Orozco, said at first he thought she was 'nuts', but he went along with it for her sake

Confidante: Gaby's mother, Juana, said she thought her daughter was 'crazy' and she found it hard to lie to family members about her pregnancy

Her school is 85 per cent Hispanic, and she said part of the reason for her experiment was the high teenage pregnancy rate among Latinos.

Principal Trevor Greene said: 'It "happened" at homecoming. In essence, she gave up her senior year. She sacrificed her senior year to find out what it would be like to be a potential teen mom.



"I admire her courage. I admire her preparation. I give her mother a lot of credit for backing her up on this.'

When she came to him with her idea last spring, he admitted he was shocked.

He warned her people might talk about her behind her back, her older brothers might try to beat up her boyfriend, and there could be a backlash when students, teachers and family members learned the truth.

Her mother, 52-year-old Juana Rodriguez, said: 'I thought she was crazy.' She said it was hard lying to so many relatives - including six out of her eight children - but she was determined to support her daughter.

Admiration: Trevor Greene, principal of Toppenish High School, said Gaby was courageous to 'sacrifice' her senior year for the sake of the experiment

Gaby's boyfriend of three years, 20-year-old Jorge Orozco, had a similar reaction. He said: 'I thought she was nuts. I thought I was going to end up getting into problems with her brothers. I didn't really want to get into problems with anybody.'

But he said: 'I was doing it for her. My parents thought it was going to be a boy.'

And Gaby said she had been terrified about how the crowd would react after she spent most of her senior year lying to them.



But her presentation was greeted with cheers and even a standing ovation, the first in the school's history.



The district superintendent even left a conference on the other side of the state at 5.30am to watch the presentation, saying: 'I wouldn't miss this.'

Gaby's supposed due date was July 27, just two months after graduation.

Nervous: Gaby said she was worried about revealing her deception to the other students at Toppenish High School, Washington State

She began her 'pregnancy' by wearing loose-fitting sweaters, before changing to the homemade prosthetic belly after spring break.

She said two of her women teachers seemed relieved, but her biology teacher, Shawn Myers, said he was just impressed by how good the experiment was.

He said: 'I just kind of leaned forward and said, '"are you serious?" I told her, "You've run a great value experiment. You couldn't tell anybody because you had to control the variables".'

Gaby still has to finish her report, and has to present her research to a board of community members in May.

But she wanted to make the revelation now so she could go on an English trip to Oregon without her baby belly - and so she could go to prom in the dress she wanted, a close-fitting mermaid-style gown with spaghetti straps.

And she said she has no plans for a real pregnancy just yet.

She said: 'I'm not planning to have a child until after I graduate.'





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