Former teen mom striving despite obstacles

When 16-year-old Shawee Gooden saw the two bright lines on the pregnancy test in 2015, she couldn’t bring herself to tell her mother.

Instead, she turned to a female entertainer for whom she was doing promotional work at the time. The entertainer offered to break the news to her mother.

“She said, ‘Give me yuh mother number make mi call her and talk to her,’” Gooden recalled.

That phone call was only the beginning of what would become a decade-long struggle for Gooden.

“I never wanted to carry the child because, you know, 16, I’m still in high school. Why would I want to end all of that because of a child?” But after speaking with her mother, she decided to continue the pregnancy.

“I told my mother, with your first pregnancy, you carried it, you didn’t get rid of it because you don’t know if that child is going to be the future prime minister or the future doctor and whatever.’ So I decided to carry my child.”

Gooden turned 17 in November 2015 and gave birth to her son the following month.

“That’s where life really began for me. I remember telling myself I am a mother now. I can’t depend on my parents to give me everything. I have to depend on myself.”

She enrolled in cosmetology school, studying hair, make-up and nails, but couldn’t afford to pay for an exam.

“I had nobody to pay for it for me, so I had to stop going to the school.”

She began working, but that took a toll on her. At one point, while crying at a bus stop, a man offered her a job at a gas station which he managed. But transportation to and from work proved difficult, so she returned to working in a wholesale. But the very week she started, she had to quit as her son was admitted to hospital because of his wheezing.

“He couldn’t breathe and them a watch him fi see what a happen. It was five hard days for me,” she said.

Gooden returned to doing nails and eventually rented a small shop. But that venture ended after the conflict with other tenants, forcing her back to working from home. After an argument with her mother, she moved out and rented a space with a friend in Drewsland, St Andrew. But one night she and her son became stranded as the police cordoned an area because of violence.

“I had to sit on the sidewalk with my baby until the yellow tape [was] moved. We out there until about 2 a.m. with mi baby, that in itself as a mother make mi hurt.”

Her son’s godmother eventually took them in, giving Gooden time to regroup. She returned to doing nails and later found work in Half-Way Tree and Cross Roads. Much of what she earned went towards transportation and caring for her son, but she kept saving – advice she took from her mother. By 2019, those savings helped Gooden open a bar in Portmore.

“What I couldn’t afford to buy a case of, I buy three, I buy six, I buy 12,” she said. For the first time, the business gave her some financial breathing room. Then COVID-19 caused a lockdown in 2020 and the bar was forced to close. Unable to afford the rent, she moved to a cheaper home. In 2021, she rented a nail booth in Half-Way Tree. Walk-in customers became regular clients.

Gooden resumed saving, initially hoping to buy a car, but instead decided to build a shop at home. After running out of money, she travelled to The Bahamas to do nails, saved and returned to finish the construction. She later diversified into wig installation and food sales, determined to support her son despite seasonal business. Financial setbacks, including a $250,000 scam, forced her to close her salon and turn the space into a bar. Last year, a man, moved by her story, helped her reopen the salon and bought her a car. Now 27, Gooden reflects on her journey with gratitude, despite moments when she nearly gave up.

When those moments came, she turned to a song that reminded her to keep moving.

“He didn’t bring me this far to leave me. I just can’t give up now,” she quoted the popular gospel ballad.

Today, her bar remains active, her salon is back, and she is focused on wigs and providing a better life for her son.

“Whatever dream you have, focus on it, because it is not the end of the world. You always have to keep going, and it’s going to get better. So don’t give up; if not for yourself then [for] your child.”