Bristol Palin Biography and Pictures Gallery 2011
Bristol Sheeran Marie Palin (born October 18, 1990) is the second child and oldest daughter of former Governor of Alaska Sarah Palin and her husband, Todd.
After Palin became a single mother at age 18, she began to publicly advocate sexual abstinence for unmarried teens, and is now a paid speaker on the subject of teen pregnancy.
She competed in the fall 2010 season of Dancing with the Stars, where she received lower scores from the judges than some other contestants but was voted through week after week by fans. She reached the finals, finishing in third place.
Palin was born and raised in Wasilla, Alaska. She was named "Bristol" after the Bristol Inn where her mother had been employed; Bristol, Connecticut, the headquarters city of ESPN, where her mother had hoped to work as a sportscaster; and the Bristol Bay region of Alaska, where her father grew up.
Beginning in 2005, Bristol attended Juneau-Douglas High School and began dating Levi Johnston. In 2008, she briefly lived in Anchorage with her aunt and uncle and attended West Anchorage High School. She returned to Wasilla and graduated from Wasilla High School in May 2009.
In May 2009, at age 18, Palin started working with the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy to inform young people about the negative consequences of teenage pregnancy. She invited fellow teen moms Maci Bookout and Farrah Abraham to join her in this work. Bill Albert, the campaign's spokesman, said that working with Palin made sense, because "she's had the highest-profile teen pregnancy of the year." Several interviews and pictorials for similar organizations followed. Also in May 2009 Palin was named a Teen Abstinence Ambassador for the Candie’s Foundation, a teen pregnancy prevention organization that is a division of the Candie's clothing brand. In April 2011 it was reported that Palin was paid more than $262,000 by the foundation for her work in 2009. Her duties as a paid spokeswoman involved attending town hall meetings and giving interviews on morning talk shows. On Good Morning America, she stated, "Regardless of what I did personally, abstinence is the only 100% foolproof way you can prevent pregnancy." Before Palin became an abstinence spokeswoman, she told Fox News that abstinence is "not realistic at all", but that she would like it to become more accepted among people her age. Several weeks later, she stated that that quote had been "taken out of context."
Her role as a spokesperson has been controversial. Bonnie Fuller, former editor-in-chief of YM, has questioned whether the net effect of Palin's presentations has glamorized rather than discouraged teen pregnancy, noting that the "picture perfect" imagery of a People magazine spread seemed to make her "the poster girl for teen momhood." On an episode of The Colbert Report, Meghan McCain stated her support for sex education and criticized Palin's sexual abstinence campaign, saying it was "not realistic for this generation." Former MSNBC commentator Keith Olbermann declared Palin his "Worst Person in the World" for her advocacy, to which Palin replied "Accusing me of hypocrisy is by now, an old canard... Parents warn their children about the mistakes they made so they are not repeated. Former gang members travel to schools to educate teenagers about the risks of gang life. Recovered addicts lecture to others about the risks of alcohol and drug abuse. And yes, a teen mother talks about the benefits of preventing teen pregnancy."
Palin works on the speakers' circuit asking between $15,000 and $30,000 for each appearance. She has signed with Single Source Speakers and is listed on their website as available for conferences, fundraisers, special events and holidays, as well as women's, youth, abstinence and pro-life programs.
In January 2011 she was invited to speak at Sexual Responsibility Week at Washington University in St. Louis, but students protested the high fee she was to be paid out of student-generated funds and her appearance was cancelled.
Source: Wikipedia
