Brittany Luce

In some ways, the teen mom and the single mom became culturally conflated, and their stigmas became shared, with the assumption being that single mothers are incapable, immoral, and immature.

But that image doesn't line up at all with the numbers.

The largest share of single moms today are actually women over 30.

That's Pallavi Gagoi, NPR's chief business editor.

She's been reporting on single mothers in the United States.

And not only are single moms getting older, there are also many more of them than you might think.

That's Danielle Elliott, freelance science writer and single mother to a three-month-old.

So today, we're giving the single mom stereotype a long overdue makeover and getting into some of the challenges and the unique joys of single motherhood.

Hello, hello.

I'm Brittany Luce, and you're listening to It's Been a Minute from NPR, a show about what's going on in culture and why it doesn't happen by accident.

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