Jamie Lynn Spears and motherhood

What happened

Jamie Lynn Spears gave birth on Thursday to a baby girl, Maddie Briann, who weighed in at 7 pounds, 11 ounces. (AP) Spears’ pregnancy was surrounded by controversy over the fact that the 17-year-old former star of Zoey 101—a TV show about a student at an exclusive school—was considered a role model for kids, and because the father of her child, 19-year-old Casey Aldridge, may have impregnated Spears when she was a minor.

What the commentators said

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“Jamie Lynn Spears is a mommy!” said Elizabeth Snead in the Los Angeles Times blog The Dish Rag. We’re sure it really helped having her big sis Britney, as well as the rest of the family, there with her. And Jamie Lynn and Casey Aldridge prepared for the birth in a responsible way: The couple got engaged, and “Jamie Lynn also passed her GED” last February. “Congratulations to Jamie Lynn and to the whole Spears family for handling their daughter’s unplanned pregnancy with grace and familial support.”

The “most interesting thing” about Jamie Lynn’s pregnancy was the public’s reaction, said Blogcritics Magazine. She’s a “teen idol/model for young kids” and she gets pregnant at the age of 16, yet “most of the reaction I have found online is supportive of Miss Spears, applauding her” for keeping the baby. I don’t exactly want to “congratulate” Jamie Lynn “on something like this,” but I do wish her “child the best.”

“Well, Britney’s little sister did it,” said Shawn Lindseth in the blog Heckler Spray. “She proved conclusively that if you want something bad enough, you can really make it happen.” But now that “she’s realized the dream she first had in a tenth grade homeroom class,” what’s next? “Maybe she’ll have another baby by 18.”

“I guess this is news of some sort,” said the blog Gloss Lip, “but I can’t seem to figure out why.” So Jamie Lynn Spears had a baby—“let the Ho-Down begin. Congrats, you two knuckleheads. Next time, use some damn protection.”