Mikayla Leskey | Arts & Entertainment Editor
Over the recent years, the Young Adult genre has gained immense popularity for its way of making everybody feel young again. Once it was a genre only for 10-18 year-olds, and now has 30-year-olds captured in the realistic characters going through thought-provoking situations. The YA Genre most commonly has teenage main characters, all dealing with the idea of identity and relationships and their place in the world.
The genre in itself is still relatively new, as it only really started being used in the 1960s when S.E. Hinton’s “The Outsiders” and J.D. Salinger's “The Catcher in the Rye” proved to publishers that people are, in fact, willing to read stories where teenagers are the main characters.
The genre since then has only expanded, especially in the early 2000s with the rise of dystopian and fantasy media. With books like “The Hunger Games” and “Divergent” selling millions of copies, turning into a multi-media franchise, and making billions, is when publishes realized the YA genre could be an absolute gold mine.
Saying this, the YA genre has been mass-producing books that aren’t always well-written. It’s getting harder to find four or five stars books due to this mass production yet there are quite a bit still to be found, it’s getting harder with more companies being greedy with wanting more money.
This genre is one of the most popular genres out there, which also means one of it’s biggest jobs is to have complex characters with diverse backgrounds. Representation in this genre matters so much because everybody is reading it. The YA genre is for those who are looking to relive their firsts again, and for younger kids to wish and wonder about their firsts.
This genre also helps increase reading among teenagers, it allows them to see themselves in a story. It helps seeing someone else go through something similar to you, especially if they’re your own age. Knowing someone else can get through what you’re going through helps tremendously in some cases.
As well, it allows there to be a kinship between readers. You can see why other people are so connected to the same story as you are. It allows for more community outreach and for you to find people with the same interests that you have.
The YA Genre is going nowhere. It’s been a money-maker for the past few decades and it’s only growing. Especially as we’re coming into a new generation of authors who want their voices to be heard. The YA Genre has something for everyone, whether that be a future to hope for or a time to be nostalgic, there’s always something to connect to.
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