It could be because I have a thing about the idea of teenagehood(?) It’s a whirlwind of freedom, love, hate, stress, summers, friends, endless possibilities. I will always regret how fast I grew out of it. Not that I could have changed that. It could be because I still feel 17. I like to think I’ve grown since then. I certainly have a clearer idea of where my life is heading now than I did at 17. But I don’t feel as though I’ve changed. I still understand all those feelings that teenagers experience.
It could be because I’m not interested in reading about grown-up things. I wanna read about first love and first kisses and friendships that build and break and build back up again. I wanna read about people who have their whole lives right in front of them. It could be because, looking back, that time of my life was good. It was better than good. It was fun, despite all the times I might have cried or got hurt, and I will always remember the way I felt.
YA books have a huge responsibility on their shoulders. They have the power to teach an entire generation, the next generation, the young people, who, one day, are going to change the world. There are so many important issues and messages conveyed in YA fiction, which are helping to open the minds of young readers.YA books just exude hope. No matter what, there’s always some words, if only a few, that will connect with someone out there, giving them hope that the future, sometimes even the present, will be better.
I have a huge problem with people who throw YA aside. I’ve come across a few people on my course who hold this view that YA isn’t worth a second glance. I don’t understand it. Not just because of my own opinions about it, but because the majority of my classmates are barely out of their teenage years. How do you just suddenly lose all appreciation for books, which, at one point or another, probably helped you through a really tough time (not to mention that they probably set you on the path you're on now).
Don’t discount an entire section of the bookshop just because the target audience are a little younger. That slightly younger audience makes books and reading so much more than just that. It’s no longer a solitary activity. It’s something to be loved and shared, a passion that friendships are forged from. I know about that first hand.
YA authors are so supremely talented. I’ve read so many books by so many authors who can twist language into the most beautiful sentences. They find exactly the right words to explain every feeling you’ve ever had and when they do, you suddenly don’t feel so alone. They shed a light on the world that makes you remember the goodness that lives here. They create characters who you wish were real and will read about them again and again and again, hoping that will bring them to life. I’ve read so much, and met so many characters, and been to so many places, and none of it would have happened if YA hadn’t been a thing.
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