My name is Canetra Winn. I am a loved, forgiven, and redeemed daughter of God.
I am also the founder and CEO of Love Bears, a Christian-based nonprofit organization.
Love Bears is dedicated to empowering youth during adolescence, increasing social empathy for at-risk teens, and providing advocacy support to underage parents.
MY WHY
God has called me to advocate for young people. I mean really go to bat for them.
Although I still consider myself young (at age 39.5), and I still have a lot of youthful tendencies, I am not talking about people in my age group, nor in my generation.
How young is youth? Well, for my ministry’s purpose, I am targeting any youth that can bear or create a child. My ministry will also support any youth that is a child to an underage parent.
As I write this, I am taken aback. The topic of underage parenting is something I have lived with for over 25 years now, and it is an issue that is not new to me whatsoever…and yet I am still taken aback. This is controversial stuff here. Growing up as a teen, nobody I knew wanted to talk about this publicly (and I was a teen in the 90’s).
I am going to talk about it now. One of my first tasks as an advocate is to begin the difficult conversations related to underage parenting and teenage pregnancies.
So let’s talk.
In terms of underage parenting, how young is too young? How young do parents get? How young can a parent be? My research found that the youngest person in the world to create a biological child (as a biological father) was between the ages 11-12 from the UK, and the youngest female in the world to bear a child was age 5 in Peru, the remarkable story of Lina Medina.
That’s scary. No wonder no one wants to talk about it.
If a youth is young enough to create or bear a child, then my advocacy is for them.
This is a good spot to segue into a memoir from my own personal story. I became pregnant at age 13. I gave birth to my son at age 14 in 1993. My obstetrician was one of the best OB/GYN doctors in Austin, TX. I remember him telling me, at the start of my prenatal care, that at age 13 I was his youngest patient in over 20 years of his practice.
7 years later in 2000, I came back to him pregnant with my daughter at the age of 20. During my exam, I remember telling his charge nurse “I was his youngest patient to deliver a baby…” He interjected and replied “Not anymore. I’ve had a 12-year-old patient since I delivered you.”
The contrast of how his reaction was to me in 1993 to his resolve in 2000 was frightening to me. I just sat there in silence, wondering how many teens were being impacted by pregnancies; how many teens were becoming fathers and mothers.
It was in that moment that I believe the seed of this ministry, Love Bears, was planted.
“Somebody has to do something to protect our youth, and youth itself”, I thought. “This is a crisis. Somebody has to do something about this crisis”, I thought. “Someone has to stop this”.
These thoughts occurred and reoccurred over and over in my spirit for a decade. I didn’t realize that my passion for this cause was because I had a calling on my life to be that someone. At first, I didn’t know why I cared so much. I thought it was just out of concern and empathy from my own life experiences.
I know now that God was calling me to advocate. Through my life experiences, He was equipping me for this ministry.
Q: What about teens who aren’t parents?
A: I am advocating for them, too.
Why?
Because youth is precious. And fleeting.
Adolescence is a special time period that only happens once; yet so much of our identity and purpose is explored and discovered during this unique, critical time in our lives. Human development doesn’t always allow adolescents the maturity to fully guard themselves, nor to make sound decisions – particularly against risks or threats to their quality of life, livelihood, and their safety.
(It wouldn’t be youth if it did).
That’s why adults are usually there to guide young people as they become independent thinkers and persons. However, not all adolescents have adults in their lives, and the teens that do may not have responsible adults in their lives. Or, the guardian(s) they have in their lives are youths themselves, who may, unfortunately, still have some growing up to do.
Love Bears is for all youth, at-risk or not; our ministry supports youth impacted by underage parenting especially.
This is my why.
As our organization grows, we will help adults who have been impacted by underage parenting, and children born into families impacted by underage parenting. During our grassroots phase, our focus is on adolescents.
I am looking forward to the work to be done in our startup season. I pray that our journey is blessed and prosperous. I believe through God’s love, we can change the lives of those we serve.
Love bears all things,
Canetra Winn
Founder & CEO
Love Bears
