Bring on the Drama
By Dawn Carrington,
Editor-in-Chief of Vinspire Publishing
The Vampire Diaries. The Originals. Teen Wolf. Nashville.
Gilmore Girls. Ugly Betty. Buffy: The Vampire Slayer. Dawson’s Creek. Beverly
Hills: 90210, Gossip Girl. Veronica Mars. The list of teen dramas goes on, with
many of the series having lasted more than the four years on television which,
in today’s world, is considered a good run.
Post a poll on Facebook, and you’ll see just how many adults enjoyed (or
still enjoy) those shows even though they were geared toward a teen audience.
Switching mediums to young adult novels, and you’ll find
Twilight, Harry Potter, Hunger Games, The Fault in Our Stars, The Princess
Diaries, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lovely Bones, and The Maze Runner to
name a few. These are all popular teenage novels that were made into movies,
and the buying audience wasn’t just young adults.
Teen fiction is unquestionably popular. As much as adults
love books geared toward our generation, we can also lose ourselves in a good
story, regardless of the age of the characters. In young adult novels, we have
all the drama, the love, the adventure, the danger, without the boring parts of
life that we, as adults, have to face every day.
In most cases, young adults can focus on being young adults,
and that is a draw to those of us who have already tiptoed past our teenage
years. Because of our life experience, we can see a teenage tragedy that’s
survivable. What we saw as a crippling moment in our lives was a lesson. These
young protagonists are still learning, and we like being along for the journey.
But what about those books that tackle tough topics like
death, assault, and homelessness. What can we, as adults, possibly see in those
stories? How can they be any more interesting than reading about the same thing
in a book written for our age?
Most, it not all, young adult books, even those that delve
into the darker edges of life, still carry an element of hope. You can still
find meaning within those pages. Young adult books are rarely written with the
intent to terrorize readers or leave them feeling hopeless. The endings might
not always bring a smile, but we can close the book knowing we survived another
journey and, for a few hours, got a chance to relive the years of teenage drama
and angst. And, for some reason, those years don’t seem quite as bad as they
were at the time.
Everyone who comments will be entered into a drawing for
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Reading books for teens take me back to my youth with a renewed perspective of compassion, forgiveness, and understanding about myself.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Kay. It's one of the reasons I just started writing young adult myself!
DeleteI like the drama I think. Also the characters are developing a lot and finding themselves. Which is very interesting to see/read.
ReplyDeleteBetul E.
The drama is a real draw for me as well. Thanks for stopping by!
DeleteI turned 31 this year but I still think like I'm a teenager sometimes. Not the immaturity of teenagers I just don't feel like that many years have past. I love to get lost in great books where it isn't the same story over and over by different authors. When I get angry at all the billionaire books (that I can in no way relate to), I generally get lost in YA for awhile. I think those years are what decides the kind of person we will become.
ReplyDelete