New Medium Article: Let's Stop Shaming Adults for Reading YA
Hello everyone! I just posted a new article on my Medium page. It's a bit shorter than what I normally post. Today I am looking at why adults are shamed for reading young adult fiction and finding examples of how young adult fiction tackles difficult subject matter. The link to the full article is below, as well as a sneak peek.
Link: https://alysonserenastone.medium.com/...
Sneak Peek:
I think it is time for me to do my take on this matter. I’m going to go on a little bit of a rant here. However, I feel that this is a matter that we need to talk about. We see it time and time again in the reading world: Adults being shamed for reading young adult. For those of you who don’t know, young adult is usually designed with an audience of thirteen to eighteen years old. Once you are out of that age, you are supposed to move on to adult titles. At least, that is how some people look at it.
I am someone who reads a mix of young adult and adult titles. There is nothing wrong with this. I find that sometimes I need a YA title to escape from the world. Sometimes you just need to read a story told by a teenager to make you see the world differently. Often a young adult title will allow you to see the world differently. Many times seeing the world from the point of view of a young person gives you a different understanding. It allows you to see the issues that both young people see and how they make sense of them. The world is a very complex and unforgiving place. A young adult title can present these issues in a way that is simpler to understand-not always though.
Young adult books tackle many difficult issues and bring them to light in a way that adult books don’t. We see people discovering themselves, dealing with trauma, and trying to make sense of the world around them. These are all things that adults go through. YA seeks to discuss the tough stuff. I am not saying that adult books do not do this. What I am getting at is many times YA books handle situations better than adult books. We see characters stand up for their beliefs, we see them try to bring about change. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, Wonder by R.J. Palacio, Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, and 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher are just a few of the many titles out there. We see characters in these books deal with racial injustice, personal illness disabilities, sexual assault, and suicide. I know that the ones I listed are contemporaries, but many YA fantasies also tackle the same thing. Two that right out to me are Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan and Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao. Girls of Paper and Fire tackles PTSD, sexual assault, and depression. Iron Widow looks at social injustice toward young women. It makes an impact and I think that young adult books do this better than adult. Why? There is just something in seeing a young person trying to make sense of what is happening in the world around them. Not only are they attempting to make sense of it, but they are trying to change their world. They are trying to create a better world for everyone around them.
Also, many of these authors and series are ones that I started reading in high school. One of these is Cassandra Clare’s Shadowhunter books. When I first started reading these books, it was just The Mortal Instruments. Clare has been constantly adding new volumes to the series. All of them are interwoven and connected with each bringing new insight into the original world. Another example would be the Twilight and Hunger Games series. Both of these have gotten recently gotten prequels. People who read these books when they were younger are going to come back and revisit the world they grew up in. It's much like the Harry Potter books. People long to return to things they grew up in. They want to experience these things again. Many of them now have families of their own and now can experience it with their own families. Not only that but given the world we live in, people are looking for a safe place. They want to get away from all of the harshness in the world a return to a safe place.
Have a Happy Saturday!
Serena
Link: https://alysonserenastone.medium.com/...
Sneak Peek:
I think it is time for me to do my take on this matter. I’m going to go on a little bit of a rant here. However, I feel that this is a matter that we need to talk about. We see it time and time again in the reading world: Adults being shamed for reading young adult. For those of you who don’t know, young adult is usually designed with an audience of thirteen to eighteen years old. Once you are out of that age, you are supposed to move on to adult titles. At least, that is how some people look at it.
I am someone who reads a mix of young adult and adult titles. There is nothing wrong with this. I find that sometimes I need a YA title to escape from the world. Sometimes you just need to read a story told by a teenager to make you see the world differently. Often a young adult title will allow you to see the world differently. Many times seeing the world from the point of view of a young person gives you a different understanding. It allows you to see the issues that both young people see and how they make sense of them. The world is a very complex and unforgiving place. A young adult title can present these issues in a way that is simpler to understand-not always though.
Young adult books tackle many difficult issues and bring them to light in a way that adult books don’t. We see people discovering themselves, dealing with trauma, and trying to make sense of the world around them. These are all things that adults go through. YA seeks to discuss the tough stuff. I am not saying that adult books do not do this. What I am getting at is many times YA books handle situations better than adult books. We see characters stand up for their beliefs, we see them try to bring about change. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, Wonder by R.J. Palacio, Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, and 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher are just a few of the many titles out there. We see characters in these books deal with racial injustice, personal illness disabilities, sexual assault, and suicide. I know that the ones I listed are contemporaries, but many YA fantasies also tackle the same thing. Two that right out to me are Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan and Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao. Girls of Paper and Fire tackles PTSD, sexual assault, and depression. Iron Widow looks at social injustice toward young women. It makes an impact and I think that young adult books do this better than adult. Why? There is just something in seeing a young person trying to make sense of what is happening in the world around them. Not only are they attempting to make sense of it, but they are trying to change their world. They are trying to create a better world for everyone around them.
Also, many of these authors and series are ones that I started reading in high school. One of these is Cassandra Clare’s Shadowhunter books. When I first started reading these books, it was just The Mortal Instruments. Clare has been constantly adding new volumes to the series. All of them are interwoven and connected with each bringing new insight into the original world. Another example would be the Twilight and Hunger Games series. Both of these have gotten recently gotten prequels. People who read these books when they were younger are going to come back and revisit the world they grew up in. It's much like the Harry Potter books. People long to return to things they grew up in. They want to experience these things again. Many of them now have families of their own and now can experience it with their own families. Not only that but given the world we live in, people are looking for a safe place. They want to get away from all of the harshness in the world a return to a safe place.
Have a Happy Saturday!
Serena
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