What exactly is the difference between YA and NA, please?

[Sam (Rescue Dog Mom, Writer, Hugger)]

I'm wondering what exactly is the difference between a YA story and an NA story. I suspect it's determined by sexual content, but don't know what the cut off is. If the story contains sex at all, or if it's even briefly stated sex took place, is it NA?

I greatly appreciate some clarification anyone has to offer. Thank you.

[Tracy]

Not all NA books have sexual content however the distinction I have found between the two is the age. Seems like the majority of NA books I have read are college age kids. Not always true for every book, I guess, but that has been my experience.

[Sam (Rescue Dog Mom, Writer, Hugger)]

Thank you, Tracey. I just thought of something else. If one character kills another, that is probably considered NA.

[Tracy]

I have found that in YA though. has a lot of that. I really believe NA is rather new so it's hard to know.

[C.L.]

I think NA is more college/leaving home plot lines while Young Adult is high school problems. Sexual/foul language content probably also makes a difference. I worry that my YA book has too much swearing but the main character is sixteen so surely that is YA. And there are lots of YA books that deal with rape, loss of virginity etc

[Sam (Rescue Dog Mom, Writer, Hugger)]

Thank you C.L. and Tracy. Your right, killing does occur in YA. I wish there was some write-up on it to know for sure. Thank you both for your input. Greatly appreciated. : )

[Farren]

I always assumed the difference was the degree of sexual content and whether the characters were teens or in their early 20s. I notice most YA novels I read have sex scenes that are mostly fade to black kind of deals or are mentioned so you know it happened but with no details. Twilight is a good example of that.
I think A Court of Thorns and Roses vs A Court of Mist and Fury is an interesting case to look at. There is much more sexually descriptive content in Mist and Fury and it has mostly NA tags, whereas the other has really only one sex scene (which I thought was more descriptive than most YA novels but still nothing bad) and it has all YA tags.
I don't see the issue because I think a book that says young adult is going to have profanity and sex, because that's what adults do. Well, most of us. I think people that are too young or easily offended should maybe stick to middle grade for now. Or they could just have a genre labeled Teen! But I bet a lot of parents would be mad when their kid gets a sequel to their favorite book and it's all of a sudden NA instead of YA with no warning...

[C.L.]

Yeah that's going to be a problem for me. In my sequel my character is finishing high school/going to college/dealing with sex so it's going to have to upscale to NA I think.

[Tracy]

I also think they don't label books correctly all the time.

[Sam (Rescue Dog Mom, Writer, Hugger)]

Yes, it is a dilemma when the main character ages in a book series.

I agree they are not all properly categorized. Just like some adult romances should actually be deemed as erotica.

[Tracy]

Haha so true Sue.

[Callie]

Sue (Dog Mom) wrote: "Thank you C.L. and Tracy. Your right, killing does occur in YA. I wish there was some write-up on it to know for sure..."

There's a book by Deborah Halverson on writing NA novels that deals with this dilemma. Needless to say it's complicated! The phrase she uses over and over is "coming of age," which seems to mean leaving adult supervision behind and trying (not always successfully) to deal with adult issues for the first time. Age is more or less 18-25. College, swearing, and explicit sex are NOT required. :)

[Sam (Rescue Dog Mom, Writer, Hugger)]

Thank you for the clarification, Callie. That makes sense. I should have thought of that before.