Why Do Adults Read YA?
I love reading YA, actually, probably more now than when I was a YA. And I know so many other adults, do, too.
It got me to thinking about what it is about YA that I like. I love reading about firsts. As adults we have fifty years of the same-old, same-old. We have less than a decade of being a teen. Teens are more willing to take risks, and their books are filled with a kind of rebellious spirit that I adore.
But then I got to thinking about it a little more, and I realized... But who is WRITING YA?
It's, for the most part, adults.
And as much as we, as YA authors, try to channel our inner teenager, some of that worldliness, that maturity, is going to come through. In fact, a lot of authors don't even attempt to channel that teenager anymore. Some writers of both adult and YA say they don't make any distinctions, other than saying their character is a certain age. On the page, their character is seventeen, but the way the character acts, speaks, thinks... well, they could give a forty-something-year-old a run for their money.
But is that realistic? Okay, there are some teens out there who are wise-beyond-their-years, and a hell of a lot more who at least pretend to be.
So something is giving me the feeling that the reason why so many adults these days love YA fiction is because it's the chance to see how someone of more advanced age would act if put in a normal teen situation. For example, I read a lot of YA books and think, "Yeah, that's exactly what I would have done." Today, maybe. But then I think, "But if I were a teen, I would have done things totally different."
And maybe adults pooh-pooh certain YA because it DOES accurately portray teens. And adults don't want to read about that. I think of the Bucks County teacher who called all her students "whiny and lazy" on her public blog, and how so many people agreed with her. I'm sure that the last thing she (and all the others) would want to do is read a book told by a "whiny, lazy teen", but hey, they're out there, aren't they? Adults don't want to read the way things really are, they want to read their version of the teen novel, the romanticized version of their past, where they were back at Prom, but had all the maturity and control of an adult.
The exception here is Twilight. The obsessive nature of Bella was almost unbearable to a lot of adults, but caused teenage girls everywhere to go nuts. Because it was REAL. It struck a chord with so many teens. And miraculously, mothers everywhere finally got into it because it forced them to channel their inner teenager, that real one that was hiding somewhere. It allowed them to capture that excitement of first love, in a very real way. More than a handful of people out there always complain that Bella is a whiny, obsessive, marshmallow, but ... she's a real teen. She's not a person with all the answers. And I like that about her. I like the authenticity, even though it can grate cheese at times.
Of course, when I was a teen I read what adults read because I wanted to be like them. So teens are reading what is put in front of them because that's what's available to them. But I keep wondering... what is it that they want?
Because I write for teens, and that's the only thing I want ... to write what strikes a cord with them, what they'll like, and not what they're being told they should like.
So what do you think? Do you read YA? If so, why?