Tonight marks a whole new season of Teen Mom 2 drama. And in between the divorces and the drug tests of her costars, 21-year-old Chelsea Houska stuggles to raise her adorable daughter Aubrey while balancing school, a job, and the complicated on-and-off relationship with her ex-boyfriend Adam Lind.
I recently sat down with Chelsea to ask her about the upcoming season and what she's not looking foward to seeing. "Pretty much every time I know me and Adam get back together," she tells me. "I don't want to watch that because I know I'm about to get a whole bunch of crap. I just hate watching that."
Not all of the teen dads come off great on the show, but Adam has especially hit a nerve with fans for being a bit... well, douchey. "It isn't all bad. There are good times," Chelsea explains. "I think my problem is letting go of how it was when we first started dating and that feeling of being like so in love with someone. I think once that feeling faded away, it was like, I knew we had that before. And you just want that back so bad. So it's hard because I know we aren't good for each other, but it's still hard."
Even though we'll Chelsea and Adam at odds again this seaso, don't expect to see her with a bunch of random guys any time soon. "Dating is not really one of my priorities right now," she says. "I just want to focus on myself and Aubrey before I try to bring another relationship into the mix.
Like Maci Bookout from the first installment of the series, Chelsea has what most people would consider an "easier" time than some of her costars. Being a young mom isn't easy by any means, but when you're life is compared to those of three other girls, people are quick to judge.
"Definitely," she says of all the assumptions. "I've gotten comments from people like, 'Why are you even on Teen Mom? Because you're spoiled, blah blah.' It's like, 'OK, but I'm still a teen mom.' Even with the support and everything, it still doesn't make it easy.
She adds, "Emotionally, it's hard. People think my dad gives me everything. He helped me out when I was 18. Now, I'm on my own. I don't think people realize that. They just think back to the first time they saw me. If you have a support system, they are going to call you a 'spoiled brat.' It's a lose-lose situation."
Still, Chelsea says it's hard watching the other girls go through difficult things in their lives too. "Whenever I watch the show, I always want to help them," she says of her costars. "It makes me sad to see them sad because we're really close. It's watching your friends go through a really hard time."
So who does she think has the worst luck with guys? "I would say me and Jenelle because the other two have great guys," she says. "Jenelle because she's had some off-and-on relationships and stuff. And me, obviously (laughs). I have the worst luck."
Speaking of Jenelle Evans, she's also had a rough time making friends she can trust (and whom don't feed her drugs). Luckily, Chelsea avoids that. "There's been a few times I befriended someone who wasn't really a true friend," she says. "But I think right now, the group of friends I've been hanging out with, is a real good group. I would rather have a couple really close friends than a bunch of fake friends."
Because so much of all the friend drama plays out on Twitter these days, Chelsea steers clear of sharing too much on social networking sites. "I don't share a lot of my personal things because I think that's already on TV," she tells me. "I don't like drama. I don't want to do that on Twitter. I just like to say funny stuff or things that people maybe relate to, or share cute pictures of Aubrey."
Aubrey is three years old now and recognizes herself on TV, but of course, doesn't really understand the extent of what that means. Chelsea opens up about what kind of conversation she'll have with her daughter in the future. "I don't want her to see a lot of the stuff until she's old enough to understand, so I'm going to try to control that as much as possible," she explains. "I'm just going to explain to her that we were young and her dad was young. I never wanted her to be disappointed with how she was raised. I want her to really think I was a good mom and made the right choices and always put her first. It's good that I can show her how hard I tried to make it work with her dad."
Following the upcoming season, MTV will premiere a whole new group of girls on Teen Mom 3, for which Chelsea has good advice. "Just don't think take what people say to you personally because it can be really hard and really hurtful," she advises. "People have made me cry many times, but you just have to let that stuff go. Those people are never going to know you. There's nothing you can do. There's always going to be people who are just haters."
And through experience, she knows that's not something you learn overnight. "It took me a long time," Chelsea admits. "And it still bothers me. It's way easier to say, 'Oh, just don't care. You don't even know those people' than to actually not care."
The new season of Teen Mom 2 premieres tonight at 10 p.m. on MTV.
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