With shows like MTV’s hit reality series “Teen Mom” and “16 and Pregnant” drawing in audiences every week to see what bump in the road struggling mothers will face next, Lifetime Television seems to be striking while the iron is hot by coming off the heels of its successful 2010 movie “The Pregnancy Pact.”

On Jan. 28 at 8 p.m. Eastern and Pacific times, the network will drop “The Pregnancy Project,” a true story based on 17-year-old Toppenish High School student Gabby Rodriguez (played by “Spy Kids” Alexa Vega) who fakes being pregnant as part of a social experiment for her senior project.

With only a handful of people — her mother, boyfriend and school principal — aware of the scam, Rodriguez’s findings forces the school and surrounding community to confront their prejudices and preconceptions about teenage pregnancy when she takes the trial head-on and decides to become a temporary statistic.

As her homemade prosthetic baby bump — made out of wire mesh and cotton quilt batting — grows over a six-and-a-half month period, she records how she is treated and what is said about her both in and out of school. When she concludes her findings, Rodriguez addresses her peers and the campus faculty about the various stereotypes she endured during a special school assembly, creating further shock waves when she rips off her padded baby bump and reveals the pregnancy was a sham, leaving everyone stunned.

The story made national headlines, leading Rodriguez to later capitalize on the new-found attention by writing a book called “The Pregnancy Project: A Memoir” with the help of Jenna Glatzer. And with so much focus now on teen moms, executive producers Barbara Lieberman, Tom Patricia, Sharlene Martin and Anne Bremner along with screenplay writer Teena Booth and director Norman Buckley were champing at the bit to produce a Lifetime Original Movie that takes a hard look approach at how the nation views teenage pregnancy.

Young starlet Alexa Vega was running on fumes when she spoke to the media recently about the film. She had completed a long shoot for the short film “Devil’s Carnival” and only had four hours of sleep. But, she was not short on her thoughts.

The 23-year-old actress grew up “with a ton of mommy duties” as the oldest of six siblings. Many of the struggles were the same, she said.

That was enough to lure her to the project, but not sufficient to exactly prepare for carrying out the role through Rodriguez’s eyes.

“I didn’t realize that this was a true story,” she admitted when asked what she thought of the script. “They told me it was a true story, but I didn’t remember hearing about it. When they brought it up to my mom, she had seen it all over the news when it actually happened. So, I started looking it up and really researching who Gabby Rodriguez was and what her story was and getting a better idea from watching her in interviews.”

She also worked closely with Buckley and the producers to ensure that she portrayed her character how they wanted and was appealing enough to draw a variety of audiences. It also helped that Rodriguez was on hand to answer many of the questions that ran through her head about the thoughts and feelings Rodriguez underwent prior to revealing her secret.

“I was able to get all these little inside tips, which helped me into it a little bit further,” Vega said. “It was so helpful and I think that in the end we pulled it off.”

Noting that humans by nature judge, Vega soon found Rodriguez to be inspirational. “It [was] truly amazing to see Gabby go through what’s she’s gone through,” Vega said. “She is such a bright, smart, articulate young woman, and for her to come up with this well-thought out plan at just 17 years old, and not only convince her mother to feel comfortable to go through something as stressful and emotional as this, and to convince your principal and teachers, you have to have a really strong message that you want to send and I think she sent it.”

The message, one Vega said rang loud and clear for her, is that “Being a teen mom is a really difficult task, but if it’s something that you’ve gotten yourself into, it’s not the end of the world for you. You have plenty of opportunities and you can still accomplish your goals. You’re just going to have to work harder than everybody else. ... No matter how you try to prepare yourself, you are inheriting a world that you will never know until you truly experience it.”

Reality television shows, she added, do the population a disservice because “they are sort of glorifying it and cheapening what being a teen mom really is,” said the Florida native. “I don’t think they make it look so bad as to where you would never want to do it. Some people see these teen mom shows and think ‘Oh, these women do and they are getting paid to do it, why can’t I?’

“It’s something that isn’t right because there are a lot of hardships involved. … With this [movie], we show both sides. We show how difficult it is for a teen mother through one of our other character’s Tyra [Laci J. Mailey]. We also show a new world, one that highlights the opportunities. That is what we are trying to show here, that you should not judge them because the reality doesn’t go away, she is still pregnant. Why not have people who are around the pregnant teen be helpful and encouraging and find ways to motivate them and help them along in their journey.”

And while Vega wore a furnished baby bump of her own for the film, the idea of being a young mother hit home. As the prosthetic belly grew to fit with Rodriquez’s experience, Vega said she started to waddle and touch her stomach frequently.

“There were some strange mommy instincts that kicked in,” she said. “It was so weird, but at the same time, it put me into the reality of the situation.”

But don’t look for Vega to get pregnant anytime soon. She and husband/producer Sean Covel, who married in 2010, want to continue to build upon the foundation of their relationship before having children.