Back in May, Joy-Anna Duggar married Austin Forsyth in the kind of massively attended ceremony for which her family has become known.
Just three months later, Joy-Anna announced that she was pregnant with her first child.
The move came as somewhat of a surprise, as Joy-Anna is just 19, and getting pregnant within days of getting hitched amounts to moving quickly even by Duggar standards.
(Naturally, there are those who believe Joy-Anna got pregnant before her wedding, but that’s a conversation for another time.)
Given that Duggar women are generally discouraged from entering the workforce, it would seem that Joy’s future is pretty much set in stone.
Obviously, she’ll be Austin’s wife.
(Divorce is strictly forbidden in the Duggars’ world.)
She’ll probably raise a massive brood of oddly-named children.
(The Duggar women all seem to be in a race to out-breed one another, and they’ve shown a fondness for “unique” monikers like Spurgeon.)
But Joy-Anna may have more in mind for her future than a lifetime of casseroles and runny noses.
In fact, many believe that she’s being groomed to follow her in her father’s footsteps and enter the world of politics.
Back in February–just a few months before she became a wife and expectant mother–Joy-Anna interned at the Arkansas House of Representatives.
Her brother, Jedidiah Duggar, also landed an internship, but it was Joy that fans were really interested in, as Duggar women are generally encouraged to pursue any sort of career path.
The fact that she was permitted to take such a high-profile internship, led many to believe that the Duggars were hanging their future political hopes on Joy.
The family has long been open about their desire for politcal clout, but in the past, those dreams have gone unrealized.
From 1999 to 2002, Jim Bob served Arkansas’ Sixth District in the state House of Representatives, but left his post in order to run for the US Senate.
His campaign crashed before it left the ground, however, as the Duggar patriarch was trounced in the primaries by fellow GOP candidate Tim Hutchison.
Jim Bob and Michelle’s eldest son Josh Duggar briefly worked as a lobbyist in Washington, but his career was derailed by revelations that Josh had molested five girls in his younger years.
The talk of Joy’s political future died down a bit after her wedding, but it’s picked up again in recent weeks, thanks in part to her politically charged social media posts.
Obviously, it’s too early to say if the 19-year-old has a future in the political arena, but it seems pretty clear that she’s headed in that direction.
Watch Counting On online for more from reality TV’s most controversial family.
