by William Plummer and Curtis Rist

About the authors: William Plummer and Curtis Rist are reporters for People Weekly.

In 1994, Becky Anderson’s room was a typical teenage lair with jewelry, barrettes, tapes and CDs piled on her bed and bureau. In 1995, with a crib and a Swyngomatic and baby toys strewn on the floor, it looks more like a nursery— which it is. Still, the change in Becky Anderson’s room pales next to the transformation in Anderson herself since she gave birth to her son Tyler, now 9 months old. “On my birthday, I didn’t feel like I’d turned 17,” she says. “I felt like I’d turned 30.”

Tyler Anderson is one of more than 500,000 babies born in 1995 to teenage mothers—girls who...