Why do we love young adult fiction?

Let me count the ways...

Look, there are probably plenty of reasons why we love young adult (YA) fiction, and I will go through a few of them here.

But I’ve also got a theory, an underpinning concept, that I’d like to share with you about what draws us in and keeps us reading.

And please, tell me your perspective in the comments below. I’d love to hear them!

YA is everything

YA, when referred to as a genre, is really a way to categorise books and locate them in the bookshop.

But what’s unique to YA is that you can find almost every adult fiction genre, perhaps apart from erotica, and rightly so, represented within YA.

There’s YA contemporary, literary, thriller, mystery, romance, crime, fantasy, dystopian, historical, paranormal, science fiction, gothic, steampunk, romantsy and other cross genres too. There’s everything!

You’ll also often find a healthy dose of compelling themes such as family issues, friendships, intimacy, mental health, politics, economics, morality, sexuality, coming of age and so many other powerful topics. They’re all featured in YA but not in dumbed down or condescending ways.

YA is for everyone

YA can cross genres and focus on different themes but what almost every YA book shares is a protagonist who is in their teens, normally 14 - 18 years old.

YA books are also written from the teen protagonist’s world view and experience of life rather than from the perspective of an adult looking back on their teenage years from a distance.

In YA books, we’re intimately in the teenage experience. That gives it its potency and resonance.

But that doesn’t mean that only teens read YA. According to some surveys, more than 50% of YA readers are adults. So whether you’re young or adult, YA is for you.

It’s a time in your life

The teens years are a potent time in our lives, aren’t they?

We experience many things for the first time, everything is intensified, there’s lots of social and emotional complexity going on, and it can be a challenge to navigate it all. That makes for good drama!

If you’re a teen reader, you’re in it so YA fiction can speak to your direct experience or open you up to other people’s experiences in a way that’s relevant to your life right now.

If we’re older, well, we were once a teen and we remember those years, don’t we? They were intense times so they never quite leave us. They can be reimagined and reengaged with every time we read YA without having to Jennifer Garner back into our teenage body.

So here’s my theory about why we read YA

Firstly, it might be helpful to know what underpins my writing here at Hey, YA and, in fact, my entire life.

The framework I use to understand myself, other people and the world is explained here in Welcome to your inner world. It’s based on Internal Family Systems.

In brief, the key message is that we all have a core Self but we also have many parts of us that make up our inner world.

We have parts like anger, frustration, anxiety, sadness, overwhelm, to name a few, that are trying to protect us.

And we have younger, vulnerable parts that are holding onto pain and shame.

Healing happens when we befriend our protector parts and allow our younger parts to release their pain.

What’s this got to do with YA reading?

So you’ve heard of people talking about an inner child, right? It’s a helpful concept for understanding more vulnerable aspects of ourselves.

But Internal Family Systems says we don’t just have one inner child. We have many.

And that means we also have at least one, and maybe more, inner teens.

What do our inner teens like to read? Yes, YA!

It’s our inner teen(s) that pull us through a YA story, hoping the main character gets the boy/girl/person, solves the mystery, overcomes the big obstacle, escapes danger, navigates social constraints, discovers their powers and slays the enemy.

This is great and healthy and wonderful! Whether you’re a teen right now or you were once a teen, we’ve all got a part of us who is connecting with, empathising with and living through the characters in YA books.

How is this helpful? Whether you’re a teen now or were one, it can:

• Validate our inner teen’s experience

• Help to release and heal teenage hurts

• Ignite our teen excitement and energy

• Relive moments that we’d love to experience again

• Remind us who we are and want to be

All good things! So yes, we don’t need an excuse to read YA but if we’d like a deeper explanation for what’s drawing us to YA and how its helping, then thank your inner teen.

That’s my theory but what’s yours? Tell me why you love reading YA. And which genre or type of YA books do you love the most?