Gaby Rodriguez is just your typical high school girl. Standing in front of a room full of librarians, booksellers and publishers at Simon and Schuster’s 2012 Spring Preview, she was cool and confident --- and you never would have guessed she’d been the topic of national news headlines for the past nine months.
After an introductory video that showed an interview and story about her on ABC News, Gaby told the story --- from the original idea to the shocking reveal --- of how she faked her own pregnancy. After deceiving her school community, teachers, friends, and even siblings, she revealed in front of her whole school that she’d never been pregnant to begin with.
Gaby originally decided to do the pregnancy act for her senior school project, as a kind of social experiment to see how her friends and classmates would react. Since the senior project was a requirement for all students, and hers was top secret, she also had to create a second, “fake” project, for which she had a “fake” mentor. Meanwhile, she wore a fake baby-bump under her clothes, faked pregnancy symptoms, and acted pregnant to everyone around her --- all the while taking note of how others were reacting and how their behavior toward her was changing.
In her modest way, Gaby shared her thoughts on how her project had changed the opinions and behavior of her classmates, and the wide variety of reactions she got after revealing that it was all a hoax. She also shared how her relationship with her boyfriend persevered through the project; he stayed by her side the whole time, even though it took a major toll on him and his social image as well.
After taking some questions, Gaby was whisked off to continue her book tour --- but you can read the full version of her incredible story in THE PREGNANCY PROJECT!
