MTV's 'Pretty Little Mamas' Aren't Trying to Glamorize Young Pregnancy: 'We Are Normal Moms'

Pretty Little Mamas follows a group of five young moms raising kids and navigating relationships in San Diego

Photo: MTV

The Pretty Little Mamas cast consists of five mothers ages 25 and under who will open up every aspect of their lives — from motherhood to dating — when the MTV reality show premieres Thursday night. But they’re not worried about facing the internet’s infamous mommy-shamers.

“Of course there’s going to be things said about any way a parent raises their child, no matter what age they are, so I think you just have to take it in stride,” Nicole Pleskow, mom to 5-year-old Noelle, tells PEOPLE. “All that matters with me is my relationship with my child. I know that all of us are great moms.”

Nicole, 25, met the other girls — Alyssa, Cheyenne and Chandlar — while attending high school in San Diego, and then Nikki joined their circle when she moved to the U.S. from Singapore for college. Nikki’s plans changed, though, when she got pregnant with daughter Alaia, now 2.

“I made that decision pretty quickly to just leave school and focus on the baby,” says Nikki, 24.

On the show, Nikki attempts to balance motherhood with breaking into the modeling industry and working on her relationship with her daughter’s dad, Ryan — plus mommies’ nights out, waterfront parties with her friends and sipping wine at Nicole’s parents’ pool.

“People who watch our series and get to go on this journey with us will start to understand and notice that it really is not glamorous,” she says. “We are normal moms that are struggling to balance it all.”

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Nicole, who’s pursuing an online master’s degree, figuring things out with a new boyfriend and raising her daughter with help from a nanny, points to fellow millennial mother Kylie Jenner, 21, as a source of inspiration.

“It is so inspiring to see her have such a successful career with her cosmetics line and just being entrepreneur as a woman and a young mom,” Nicole says.

But Chandlar, 25, wants to make sure viewers don’t aspire to follow in the Pretty Little Mamas‘ footsteps.

“I don’t want to be promoting it,” she says of young pregnancy, “but if it happens I would like to be a good example for young moms and a good support, because I know how hard the struggle can be.”

Though Chandlar just celebrated her son Jaxton’s first birthday last week, viewers will see her pregnancy journey with baby No. 2 (she’s also mom to Aubrey, 5) on the series. The show also follows Chandlar’s rollercoaster of a relationship with Jaxton’s addict dad Aaron, and her attempt to rejoin the friend group following a falling out over Chandlar’s relationship with Aubrey’s dad.

Despite the drama, Chandlar feels lucky to have become a mom at an early age. “I’ve been a mother for almost six years now and it’s pretty much what I’ve become accustom to; I cant remember life before it,” says Chandlar, who lived on her mom’s couch when the show filmed. “I think it kind of saved me in a way, because Lord knows where I’d be.”

MTV’s Pretty Little Mamas premieres Thursday at 9 p.m. ETon MTV.