When Alex Sekella appeared on MTV's 16 & Pregnant, the pretty, hard-working teenager from Pennsylvania had a lot on her plate: a debate between keeping her baby or placing her for adoption, a drug-addicted boyfriend, and a mom who wasn't so sure she should live at home with a little one. Now Alex is back on TV as one of the four stars of Teen Mom 3, and she's dealing with the choices she made after daughter Arabella was born.
Alex sat down with The Stir to explain why it's better that she no longer talks to Arabella's father Matt McCann, how she manages to juggle two jobs and college, and why she moved out on her own.
On why she's chosen to do Teen Mom 3:
I want people to learn from my mistakes. It's so hard to be there by yourself, and to be able to be here and tell other people you're not alone is really my main thing that I was interested in doing.
On her relationship with former boyfriend (and addict) Matt McCann:
I haven't spoken to him in a year and a half. You'll see on Teen Mom 3 how it all plays out, the last time we spoke.
We like it that way. We're both happy people. It's better for Bella to not have a hostile environment around her.
On her busy schedule:
I work at a dance studio, and I'm also full-time working for a catering company on my college campus. I'm doing [college] online.
On why she moved out of her mom's house:
I found out that Matt started living with someone about a block or two away from my mom after he had gotten out of -- was this out of the halfway house, no, no, this was after he fell off a cliff.
Unfortunately it's not on Teen Mom 3, but he was partying with a group of friends at a place in Allentown we call the Knob; it's part of the Appalachian Trail. He was partying with friends, fell off, friends took him to the hospital. He has like a huge gash in his head and stuff. It's ridiculous.
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After that happened, he moved close to my mom's house, and I was like, I don't want him near me, so I pretty much picked up my stuff and moved an hour away from my mom's house.
On her relationship with her mom:
Our relationship is a lot better. We'd be working non-stop. She'd be PMSing, I'd PMS, and then you have my sister in the mix, so we're all clashing!
On having to do it all alone now that she's moved away from her mom:
I'll get home from work and after getting her from the babysitter, I'll get home and be, like, oh no, I don't have milk! And then I have her in the car seat, passed out because it's 9 o'clock at night, and I have to go to the 24-hour Wal-Mart.
My dad visits me every day, and I asked him to go get milk once and he came back with a bike for Arabella! He's done that for me, so I don't know if I could ask for that -- he'll come back with other stuff!
On why she's not like the other Teen Mom stars:
We all have similar stories but we all make different decisions. There's no way any of us are like any of them. We're all unique ... all of us.
On how she plans to handle the haters:
We'll have the bad criticism and stuff, but we're -- the four of us -- our concerns lie within our children. When I went in, I didn't think about any criticism or anything like that because I know I'm doing what I can for my kid. I don't have any plans to do anything stupid.
Did you watch Alex on 16 & Pregnant? What do you hope to see on Teen Mom 3?
Image by Jeanne Sager