As part of a monthly series of posts guest edited by FHI 360 on behalf of USAID’S Interagency Youth Working Group (IYWG), this post in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s “Impatient Optimists” blog by Primrose Nanchani Manyalo, a field officer at Restless Development, discusses how “adolescent pregnancy is a harsh reality that many young girls encounter.” Manyalo talks about her work with young women in Zimbabwe, and says everyone has a role to play in helping to prevent adolescent pregnancy. She concludes, “Young women need increased access to equal opportunities, education in sexual and reproductive health, youth-friendly services, social support, education, employment, and empowering life skills, so that unplanned childbearing does not hinder the achievement of their dreams at a young age” (6/29).