Amy Underwood (née Juergens) is the main protagonist of "The Secret Life of the American Teenager" and was known for being the pregnant girl at Grant High School during her freshmen year.
She is the oldest daughter of George Juergens and Anne Juergens, the older sister of Ashley Juergens, the older half-sister of Robert Scott Johnson, and the mother of John Juergens. She is also the wife of Ricky Underwood (Post-Series confirmed by Brenda Hampton). She is portrayed by Shailene Woodley.
Info[]
At the start of the show, Amy is a freshman at Ulysses S. Grant High School and is a French horn player in the band. She spent the summer prior to the series at band camp, where she met drummer Ricky Underwood and lost her virginity to him. In the pilot episode, Amy takes a pregnancy test and finds out that she is pregnant. She tells her two best friends, Lauren Treacy and Madison Cooperstein, who accidentally spread the news around school. Amy at first decides to have an abortion, but backs out at the last minute and decides to keep the baby. Despite her pregnancy, Amy starts dating Ben Boykewich after he asks her out. They soon fall in love, and the two stay together throughout the season, even after Ben reveals to Amy he knows' that she is pregnant with Ricky's baby (What Have You Done to Me?). Ben decides to get engaged to Amy after finding out about the pregnancy, thinking it will help her situation.
Pressured by her friends, pediatrician, and sister, who have all figured out that she is pregnant, Amy reveals her pregnancy to her mother (Love for Sale). This is complicated by the fact that Amy's mother and father's marriage is on the rocks, and that the two are on the brink of divorce. Amy's mother initially teases the idea of Amy living with her grandmother Mimsy until the baby is born, but the idea is quickly scrapped after Mimsy reveals that she has Alzheimer's and her memory and sanity are deteriorating quickly. Amy then decides to attend a school specifically targeted towards aiding teenage mothers but is talked out of it by her father. Finally, aided by Grace and Ben, Amy makes the decision to return to her high school and continue her freshman year as a teenage mother (Back to School Special).
Months before the baby's birth, Amy struggles with deciding to put the baby up for adoption or raising the baby herself. At first, Amy sets her mind on giving the baby up and has an arrangement with Donovan and his partner Leon, but the two back out at the last minute, preferring to remain foster parents to 6 children that needed a home. Amy's family and friends are also torn on the issue, with Ricky, Ashley, and George convinced that Amy should keep the baby, while Anne stands behind Amy's decision to put the baby up for adoption. Amy ultimately decides to keep the baby shortly after finding out that the baby is a boy (That's Enough of That). Ricky, Ben, Ashley, and Amy's parents offer to help raise the child, with Grace and Jack offering Amy a job at the church nursery, as well as a place for her child to stay while Amy is at school.
Grace and Adrian offer to throw Amy a baby shower before the baby arrives. However, shortly before the party, Amy goes into labor and is rushed to the hospital (Whoomp! (There It Is)). While in labor, Amy flashes back to the first time she met Ricky, as well as the events at band camp that led up to their having sex (One Night at Band Camp). She finally gives birth to her son (And Unto Us, A Child Is Born), whom she and Ashley name John, Ashley saying that it's "a basic name for a complicated life."
Now living alone with her mother after her parents' divorce, Amy struggles to balance her new life as a teenage mother with her life as a high school student. Amy's life is further complicated when her mother reveals that she is pregnant, possibly with her boss and boyfriend David's baby.
Amy is upset when she finds out that she has to attend summer school because of the classes she missed while she was pregnant. She is further angered when she finds out Ben has been offered a job in Italy and plans on taking it. Amy makes plans to go with him, planning on taking John with her, but her plans are foiled by her parents and her responsibilities as a new mother. Amy and Ben break off their relationship shortly after the new school year starts.
Amy soon meets Jimmy, her mother's high school boyfriend's son, on a trip to visit Mimsy, her grandmother, and really likes him. However, when he doesn't return her call, Amy turns to Ricky for "kissing lessons," which her sister sees the beginning of. Amy soon confronts Jimmy about him not calling her back and the two make up, but it is too late for everyone else. The incident with Ricky has already spread and causes Ben and Adrian to have sex for both revenge and comfort. Amy and Ricky later have an altercation when Ricky asks to take John for weekends. This causes conflict among all the teens who each is confused on whose side they should take.
However, Amy later realizes Ricky is John's father and he has just as much right to him as she does. This incident causes another conflict between them when Amy realizes the custody agreement means that Ricky will get John for his first birthday. Amy, in spite, has a private birthday party for her and John in secret. The party that Ricky was throwing for John is later rained out and after learning of Amy's deceit, Ricky decides that John should have a party with just them, and allow Amy to spend the night as friends. Ben sees this and becomes jealous, but realizes that Ricky and Amy are John's parents so he calls Amy in order to reveal his feelings for her, and apologizes for his actions. Amy is thrilled to hear this news, but later at the wedding party for Leo and Betty Boykewich, Amy sees Ben and Adrian leave the party together to go to his room. This then reveals that Adrian is pregnant with Ben's baby.
At the beginning of Season 3, Amy hates Ben due to him having sex with Adrian. Ricky later visits Ben at his home and takes him to see Amy in an attempt to get them back together. With Ricky's urging, Ben and Amy talk and decide that they would give their hopes and dreams to another after Adrian tries to tell Ben that she had a false alarm. Though she didn't and was just saying that to make Ben happy. Ashley later reveals in a fight with their mom that Amy is on the pill. Something that Amy kept from the entire family.
Amy is accepted into a music program in New York, but insists she can't go because of John and her remaining schoolwork. Though she gets support from her friends and family including Ricky who decides to stay at her house while she's in New York to watch John. When Amy goes to New York, she discovers that the music program is for teen mothers. Later after talking with his father about it, Ben goes to see Amy in New York to tell her about Adrian's pregnancy. When Amy hears about this she gets into her taxi crying and drives away. She is furious that Ben waited so long to tell her and that she was the last person to know.
After they break up, Ricky calls Amy and decides to come down to see her in New York. During his stay, they develop feelings for each other and they realize that they never tried to be together since Amy was always with Ben, so they talk about trying to be together. They share many special moments including a kiss. After Amy comes home, she explains to Ben that she and Ricky should try to be a family for their son. Amy then persuades Ricky to ask her and John out on a date to try and make their relationship work. The last moment of the season shows Amy, Ricky and John eating dinner at Ricky's apartment, sharing yet another day together.
At the beginning of Season 4, Amy decides that she and John should officially move into Ricky's apartment since they were practically already living there. Although Amy's father, George Juergens, knows that they are sleeping together, he refuses to let Amy go and live there; however, he eventually approves.
While Amy is at school, she sees Ben who is still depressed and asks if she could do anything to help him and Adrian. Ben tells her that she could visit Adrian and try to make her happy. She complies and visits Adrian, who is very sad about her daughter Mercy's death, but Adrian tells her to say something happy about her life. Amy reveals to her that she and John are moving in with Ricky, then Adrian looks surprised and seems happy for them.
Soon, she and Ricky get into an argument and can't go back in the apartment. On the night of his graduation, he is valedictorian and he calls her up to propose to her. She replies yes. After this, the two go to an all-night party at Lauren's boyfriend's lake house. The next morning, she and Lauren discover that Madison had slept with Jesse and that was their last moment of friendship. She and Madison are no longer friends because she took Lauren's side after Madison slept with Jesse.
Later on, Amy is betrayed by the two of them, who had become friends again and bonded over their annoyance toward Amy, but the three of them end up all becoming friends again anyways. During all of this, she has a hard time with summer school, balancing her large amount of work with her friends (from Chicago that she met in New York) and having fun. In regards to her love life, she goes through minor obstacles, such as trying to get Ricky into college and taking her to the school dance. Soon enough, they get into a huge fight over Amy snooping on Ricky's phone to listen to the messages he saved from Adrian (who was trying to seduce him). Luckily, they make up later.
Amy reveals that she's not in a rush to get married. Amy loves Ricky, and Ricky loves Amy. Despite this, they stay engaged. Amy then feels pressured by Ricky, her friends, and her family to set a date for this wedding. As a result, she randomly picks a date: the 4th of July.
Later on in the season, Amy goes through a rough patch when a rumor goes around school that her mother, Anne, may be gay; this leads the students to start a rumor that Amy herself may be gay as well because they believe it to be genetic. In addition to this, people start saying that she picked the 4th of July because it was a "gay" holiday, despite being completely untrue. Thankfully for her, the whole situation blows over due to a situation between Adrian and Grace. In the last episode of the season, Amy accepts her mother for being gay. She then reveals to Ricky that she would be willing to marry him whenever.
In Season 5, Amy and Ricky run off to get married, but decide not go through with it the wedding because the director of the chapel they go to is crazy; however, they lie to their families & friends, saying that they are married. Amy mentors Kathy, a pregnant freshman from Texas, who gives birth to her daughter in "Hedy's Happy Holiday House" and gives up her daughter to the adoptive parents.
Amy embraces engagement to Ricky Underwood and cancels their wedding, saying that while she loves him, she is not "in love" with him, nor is he in love with her and that he is only marrying her because of John. She says that after everything that they've been through that she thinks he deserves to be madly in love when he gets married and so does she. She also chooses to go to Hudson University in New York where Leo offers her the basement floor and Ben the top floor of a three-floor apartment while she's in school. She comes back to the butcher shop with her parents several times as she debates whether or not to leave, even though she knows she will be back.Post-Series[]
In an interview with the creator of The Secret Life Of The American Teenager, Brenda Hampton, it was revealed that after the series ended, Amy attends college in New York, and Ricky and John moved to the city to be with her. They live in an apartment together, even though Amy stays in the dorms for most of the time. More specifically, Hampton said, "And Amy and Ricky fell in love with each other and with New York. They married after both of them graduated and were all too happy to have George move across the hall — so convenient."
Other than caring for John and being married to Ricky, it is also revealed that Amy's love of the arts leads her to a career in documentary films, while Ricky is currently creating a high-end fast food chain with Leo. She marries Ricky two years after the show ends after their wedding they have twins a boy named Nico Lee and a girl named Emma Rose.
Relationships[]
Romances[]
First relationship:
- Start: Falling in Love (1x01)
- Engagement: What Have You Done to Me? (1x05)
- Underage Wedding:The Secret Wedding of the American Teenager (1x12)
- The marriage was invalid because they used fake IDs.
- End: Loved and Lost (2x15)
- Reason: Ben and Amy's relationship grew increasingly strained after the birth of Amy's son. Shortly after the school year ended, Ben took a job in Italy, where he got space from Amy and met Maria Mancini, with whom he had a fling. Ben then realized he didn't enjoy spending time with Amy as much as he used to, and after several weeks of struggling to work things out, he and Amy ultimately broke up.
Second relationship:
- Start: Do Over (3x01)
- End: New York, New York (3x07)
- Reason: Ben visited Amy at her summer program in New York and told her that Adrian was pregnant with his baby. Furious, she breaks up with him.
Third relationship:
- Start: Post-series
- End: Post-series
- Reason: They didn't have the same chemistry as before, which led Amy to realize she was in love with Ricky.
- Start: Just Say Me (2x16)
- End: Mistakes Were Made (2x20)
- Reason: Jimmy finds a condom in Amy's purse and realizes that he's not ready to be in a relationship with her and her son.
First relationship:
- Start: Prior to Falling in Love (1x01)
- End: Prior to Falling in Love (1x01)
- Reason: One-night stand at band camp.
- Seen in a flashback: One Night At Band Camp (1x22)
- Reason: One-night stand at band camp.
Second relationship:
- Start: Rules of Engagement (3x14)
- Engagement: And Circumstance (4x13)
- Eloping: To Begin With... (5x01)
- End: Thank You and Goodbye (5x24)
- Reason: Amy decides that she needed to take a break from her life with Ricky and John to focus on her future and believes that she still might have feelings for Ben. She ends up moving to New York City for college and leaves Ricky and John in California.
Third relationship:
- Start: Post-series
- After a couple of years, Ricky and John moved to New York, along with George to be with Amy. Amy and Ricky fell in love with each other, and got married after they both graduated. She married Ricky a couple of years after the series finale events, confirmed by Brenda Hampton.
Trivia[]
- In the pilot episode, Anne makes pot roast because it is Amy's favourite food. However, over the course of the show, chicken wings and Chinese food have also been mentioned as Amy's favourite.
- Ashley claimed Amy never met a scarf she didn't like. (The Secret Diary of Ashley Juergens)
- In middle school, Amy always got good grades and earned an award for perfect attendance. (The Secret Diary of Ashley Juergens)
- Amy liked Madison more than Lauren according to (The Secret Diary of Ashley Juergens)
- In The Secret Diary of Ashley Juergens, Amy apparently joined the band because she had a crush on an unnamed boy(Ricky).
- In Rules of Engagement, Amy reveals that she used to repeatedly tell herself that Ricky was only interested in her because she got pregnant, which possibly contributed to her wanting to be with Ben during her pregnancy and the first year of John's life.
- After initially playing the piano, Amy began playing the French horn which was driven by her fear of the Wolf (played by the French horn) in "Peter and the Wolf", and her wanting to overcome that fear by "becoming the wolf".
- Amy keeps an e-diary which contains her thoughts on how her life would pan out had she not gotten pregnant.
- It's probable that Amy's birthday is in June, as it is revealed in Lady Liberty that Amy's family and friends forgot about her birthday. The episode takes place around the end of the school year, likely in early to mid-June.
- On her birthday Ricky slept with Karlee Carmichael immediately after visiting Amy in New York, despite Amy telling him her decision to be with him will be decided if ge can stay faithful during thid time.
- Ricky Sent images of John to Amy to make her feel guilty about going to a club with friends despite the fact he slept with Karlee. Later Amy sends a picture of herself holding a birthday cupcake explaining her club visit.
- It is learned later he never admits to sleeping with anyone, even though Amy ask's him several times.
- June 23rd, 1993 was a weekday on Wednesday (the day Amy Juergens was born).
- Amy’s western zodiac sign is ♊♋ Cervos (🦌🌿 Deer-Leaves).
- Amy’s 🇨🇳 Chinese zodiac sign is 💧 Water 🐓 Rooster.
Gallery[]
The Teens |
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Amy Underwood • Ricky Underwood • Ben Boykewich • Adrian Lee • Grace Bowman • Jack Pappas |