LAKE STEVENS, Wash. -- A Lake Stevens High School senior who pretended to be pregnant for four months revealed to fooled students, teachers and friends last month that it was a hoax.

According to KIRO 7’s partner, the Herald of Snohomish County, 18-year-old Danica Esau faked the pregnancy to document peoples’ reaction and to teach them the value of safe sex.

Esau began the experiment in December, when she started to complain about sore feet, tender breasts and ate strange food combinations in front of fellow students. In February, she told everyone she was pregnant.

As the weeks passed, Esau made sure the size of her belly grew by wrapping T-shirts around her stomach and shopped for maternity clothes with friends.

Esau said she researched Web sites on how to fake pregnancies and walked and sat as if she was carrying a baby.

The Herald reported that people who knew the teen were shocked, as Esau was known as a vocal advocate of safe sex and was known as the "condom lady" for distributing them to students at school .

The only people who knew Esau was not really pregnant were her boyfriend, her mother and a teacher.

Esau’s mother, Bibiana, said she believed in what her daughter was doing, but was constantly questioned and feared backlash.

The ruse came to an end when the family of Esau’s boyfriend complained that they were being questioned about her pregnancy.

Since she revealed that the pregnancy was a hoax, Esau said she’s lost friends and has been accused of trying to get attention, but Esau said she staged the pregnancy to help girls who are going through the real thing.

Pat Paluzzi, president and chief executive of the Healthy Teen Network in Washington, D.C., said this is the first time she's heard of a teen faking pregnancy and that she liked the idea.

"If she really thought she was seeing discrimination at her school and she really wanted to see and experience that firsthand by going undercover and deceiving people -- if that was her intent -- I don't suppose that's a horrible, horrible thing," Paluzzi said. "I think it's kind of interesting and I'd like to talk to her."

School district spokeswoman Arlene Hulten said school administrators did not know about Esau's fake pregnancy, or that Esau was handing out condoms at school, something they now will tell her to stop. "Our procedure does not warrant providing condoms for students," Hulten said.

Esau posted a video diary on the YouTube Web site about the experiement and plans to film a documentary about her experience for her school’s TV station.