YA Matters

In literary circles, we enjoy book discussion. One of the most prevalent notions of said discussions is the "importance" of any particular novel. "Does this book matter?" Or, perhaps more true, "Why does this book matter?" 

Here's the truth: Books matter. To every reader, each book means something specific and individual and personal. To the populace, reading is crucial to life--the benefits are whelming.

So...why YA? Why does young adult literature, written by adults about adolescence--often narrated by adolescents--for adolescents, matter?

1. Every reader requires a mirror.

When we read as children, we read what entertains, whatever interests and fascinates us. As teens, this hardly changes. Only now, as so many of us forget or wish to, that which interests us most is ourselves. This is primal. During our teenage years, we do so much thinking about US because we're trying on the world. We don't know ourselves enough to know where we fit in this vast, sinister, decadent, terrifying world. So we try ourselves on...we sit ourselves down for coffee...we play ourselves music. When, as we read, we witness a fully-realized representation of ourselves in a book, suddenly we know two things: 1) "I exist." 2) "I am not alone."

2. Every reader requires a window.

Seeing US, while important, is not enough. You see, we do not exist in a vacuum, all alone, with no one else to talk to, learn from, live alongside. In order to understand, in order to empathize, in order to love, there must be an entry point into that other person's soul and experience--a window through which we might glimpse. 

3. Every reader requires a sliding glass door.

It is not enough to see into someone else's life, if we are not also willing to act. Books that feature characters whose lives, which differ greatly from our own experience, we can step into, whose shoes we can fill, offer us the chance to act--indeed, to advocate--on another's behalf.

Within YA literature there exists: feminism, gay rights, racial equality, gender fluidity, stories of disabled characters, drug and alcohol-addicted teenagers, abandoned teens, non-nuclear family structures, searing representations of sexual violence narrated by its victims and perpetrators alike. Young adult literature is the literature of our times, of this day and age. YA is the literature of the Millennials.

That's why YA matters.