Top 25 Stereotypes In YA Fiction

traininvain · Apr 2, 2008

I read this article written by Joelle Anthony awhile ago. It's a list of what she believes to be the top twenty-five most used tropes of young adult fiction (it applies to contemporary fiction, mostly). If you go to the link, she explains a little more her thoughts about stereotyping and cliches.

Here is her list:

A countdown of 25 things that show up repeatedly in young adult fiction.

#25 – Vegetarian teens with unsympathetic meat-eating parents
#24 – Shy or withdrawn characters that take refuge in the school’s art room/ compassionate art teachers
#23 – A token black friend among a group of white friends - usually it’s a girl, and she’s always gorgeous
#22 – A tiny scar through the eyebrow, sometimes accompanied by an embarrassing story
# 21 – Using the word ‘rents for parents, but not using any other slang
# 20 – A beautiful best friend who gets all the guys but doesn’t want them
#19 – The wicked stepmother who turns out to be simply misunderstood and it’s all cleared up in the climax
#18 – Authors showing their age by naming characters names they grew up with (i.e. Debbie, Lisa, Kimberly, Alice, Linda, etc.)
#17 – Parents who are professional writers or book illustrators
#16 – Using coffee, cappuccino, and café latte to describe black people’s skin
#15 – Main characters named Hannah and making a note of it being a palindrome
#14 – Younger siblings who are geniuses, adored by everyone, and usually run away during the book’s climax, causing dramatic tension
#13 – The mean-spirited cheerleader (and her gang) as the story’s antagonist
# 12 – A dead mother
# 11 – Heroines who can’t carry a tune, even if it were in a bucket
# 10 – Guys with extraordinarily long eyelashes
# 9 – The popular boy dating the dorky heroine to make his former girlfriend jealous, and then breaking the heroine’s heart
# 8 – The diary, either as the entire format, or the occasional entry
# 7 – Fingernail biting
# 6 – Characters who chew on their lip or tongue in times of stress – usually until they taste blood
# 5 – Raising one eyebrow
# 4 – Main characters who want to be writers
# 3 – Calling parents by their first names
# 2 – Best friends with red hair*
And the number one thing found in YA novels…
#1 – Lists

I thought it'd be interesting to discuss.

Are you guilty of any of these? (My MC's best friend is a vegetarian whose father owns a steak joint, and she's a character who is pretty cavalier when it comes to male attention... and there's a line about my MC singing off-key at one point, but it's really a throwaway line.)

Are there any that should've made the list? I would say that I'm sick of seeing protagonists who put absolutely no effort into their schoolwork and fly by with straight A's.

Sage · Apr 2, 2008

In my YA, I have two of these. I always have someone biting their lip, and one novel has a red-haired best friend. Maybe two and a half (mean cheerleader isn't the antagonist, but, yanno, is mean to the protag).

In my non-YA, I actually have more of them, lol

ETA: Oh, I have a dead mother in one.... Dead father too. Don't think it's the context that is expected on this list, but still, I have it.

Shady Lane · Apr 2, 2008

I have dead mothers, HEROS who can't carry tunes, fingernail biting, chewing on the lip (but none of that blood shit), a writer parent, one eyebrow raising, aaaand that's it.

bethany · Apr 2, 2008

I mentioned fingernail biting once and I meant to go back and mention it again, but I never did. I have the one eyebrow thing because I'm very proud of that ability in myself and believe all cool people must raise one eyebrow occasionally.

Jenifer · Apr 2, 2008

I haaave...

A dead mom and a quickly-dead grandmother (who is called by her first name because she demanded that her kids drop the mom thing when they turned 20- made her feel old). Bwahahah.

Daimeera · Apr 2, 2008

I have a vegetarian teen whose mother is dead. Her grandmother (who she calls by her first name) isn't particularly sympathetic, but she's not unsympathetic either, just apathetic. She also wrote in a journal as per her therapist's request, but the journal entries consisted of "screw you" except more vulgar.

Chewing lips and raising eyebrows are bad habits; I'm trying to cut them out.

One of my main (male) characters is a writer, but more as a hobby than anything.

Uh, yeah. I'm sorta screwed. Blech.

Lyra Jean · Apr 2, 2008

I have a short story written in letter format. Although it's not technically YA although it could be if one thought it was. I really love the diary/journal format. If I ever wrote a YA then I would definitely write it that way. But then I've read a lot of books in that format and really love it when it's done well and they say write what you know.

reenkam · Apr 2, 2008

I used a diary format once.

And one character had a best friend with red hair...but I'm not even sure I really mentioned it. Maybe I did...but there wasn't nothing special about it. The guy just happened to have red hair, I think...

What's weird about this list if that if I think about all the YA I read...there are things on this list that I never see, things I rarely see, and things I see, but wouldn't call repetitive. It kind of makes me wonder which books were used as references for this list.

I mean...my life is more cliche than any book I've read, according to this list...

Cassidy · Apr 2, 2008

This made me laugh. I have a dead parent (my character does, anyway-- my own parents are just fine), a lip-biter, and a runaway genius. And yeah, the eyebrow thing too. But... I also have a meat-eating teen with unsympathetic vegetarian parents!

traininvain · Apr 3, 2008

I wonder what books she's read, too, because I cannot think of one story I've read with a red-headed best friend. Or a lot of characters named Hannah, either, which I think I would remember since that's my name too. (Palindromes are awesome!!)

Keep in mind, she also says this on her site:

This was not a scientific study by any means, but if you have used any of these things in your manuscripts, think long and hard about how important they are to the story because you may want to cut or change them now. Stretch your imagination, make your characters’ career choices different than what you “know”, find new ways to show emotion, and read, read, read. Besides being fun, the best part of all that reading is it will make your writing stronger.

Most of the ones she has listed wouldn't bother me to read-- lists can be a great (and often hilarious) device. I'm not adverse to journal/diary formats, but they have their drawbacks. Dead mothers seem to run rampant-- not just in fiction, but tv shows, too, and just about every Olsen twin movie out there. There's even a book called One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies by Sonya Sones-- haven't read it myself, but saw it at my library and found the title amusing.

Lip biting doesn't bother me, but dude, do you know how hard you to bite to break the skin and draw blood? That hurts!

At first I include "raising one eyebrow," but I went back and changed those instances to just "raising eyebrows."

Nakhlasmoke · Apr 3, 2008

I have a dead mother in mine. But it's all cool, 'cause at least my MC goes to hell to talk to her.

Having never actually heard Irene sing, I wouldn't know if she can. I have a feeling she can't.

TrishD · Apr 3, 2008

Well, I'm guilty of the #1 stereotype because my MC uses lists in Unbecoming. Not to excess, but there you go.

Nakhlasmoke · Apr 3, 2008

So that makes you breaker of rule #1?

AHAHAHAHAHa

Charlie Horse · Apr 3, 2008

Annoying genius little sister who goes missing at the end and has to be saved. Man, I thought I was being so original with that. Good thing that book's in the trunk.

Legionsynch · Apr 3, 2008

Well....crap.

# 20 – A beautiful best friend who gets all the guys but doesn’t want them
# 12 – A dead mother
# 10 – Guys with extraordinarily long eyelashes
# 6 – Characters who chew on their lip or tongue in times of stress – usually until they taste blood
# 5 – Raising one eyebrow
# 3 – Calling parents by their first names

Witch Eyes has all of these! Oops.

Shady Lane · Apr 3, 2008

traininvain said:
I wonder what books she's read, too, because I cannot think of one story I've read with a red-headed best friend. Or a lot of characters named Hannah, either, which I think I would remember since that's my name too. (Palindromes are awesome!!)

Keep in mind, she also says this on her site:

Most of the ones she has listed wouldn't bother me to read-- lists can be a great (and often hilarious) device. I'm not adverse to journal/diary formats, but they have their drawbacks. Dead mothers seem to run rampant-- not just in fiction, but tv shows, too, and just about every Olsen twin movie out there. There's even a book called One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies by Sonya Sones-- haven't read it myself, but saw it at my library and found the title amusing.

Lip biting doesn't bother me, but dude, do you know how hard you to bite to break the skin and draw blood? That hurts!

At first I include "raising one eyebrow," but I went back and changed those instances to just "raising eyebrows."

Speaking as a hannah: You can't have the name hannah and not mention that it's a palindrome. Just like you can't have the last name moskowitz and not mention fivel.

Not. Possible.

Chicken Warrior · Apr 3, 2008

Wow, I have a lot of opposites to those. And lists.

I had a dead mother but I revised her just recently, so I escaped relatively unscathed here.

bevmacrina · Apr 3, 2008

Lord, I'm glad my first novel is buried at the bottom of the trunk. My mc was red haired, had a dead mother (which is what deepsixed the entire story according to one of my editor friends), most of the rest of the list, except for the vegetarian one. I'm an omnivore, so so are my characters.

You may not notice them in your YA reading, but I bet editors do, they read so many. And I know dead mothers are practically into automatic rejection territory - it's too cheap and easy a way to pull the emotional strings of the reader. So unless you can make it really interesting, like going to hell to talk to her (I like that twist!) leave the dead mom's out.

I'm trying to figure out how to have a dead mother that causes problems - like having her stuffed in the closet and falling out at inconvenient times. Or dropping out of the rafters. But so far that's all I have, and I suspect I need more.

Shady Lane · Apr 3, 2008

I do dead moms just when I want them to go away.

They usually kill themselves, though. Except for Noel's, who fell on ice and cracked her head open.

I'm sort of proud of that death.

Chicken Warrior · Apr 3, 2008

Remind me not to be your mother.

Shady Lane · Apr 3, 2008

I love my mother very much and she is very alive.

Chicken Warrior · Apr 3, 2008

Another good reason not to be your mother.

Sage · Apr 3, 2008

LOL, my parents identified with the parents in the first novel of mine they read. Dad: Hey, I'm the head of Death!

So it'll be interesting when they read my other stuff. Like the one where the MC killed his parents or the WIP where the parents don't love the daughter (their love for her was drained from them; it's not their fault).

I love my parents, to be clear

chevbrock · Apr 3, 2008

My MC's mum did die, but from cancer caused by years of excessive alcohol consumption, years later. When he's young, she's just so selfish that she ups and leaves one day. Can't be bothered looking after the kids anymore.

No other stereotypes to mention in mine...

traininvain · Apr 4, 2008

I'd like to see more single moms in YA fiction. You always get the dead mothers and single fathers-- I guess because there's more novelty to the "how does the father who never had to handle the parenting cope?" angle or whatever, but it'd be nice to see the reality acknowledged more (deadbeat fathers, overworked single mothers). And you know, I don't think I've read a lot of stories where the MC has a close relationship with the mother-- or if they do, the mother is already dead before the book starts. Go figure.

Hannah is an awesome name. Though I'm pretty sure it's the height of irony that it translates to "graceful" in Hebrew, since I'm basically the clumsiest person I know.

Top 25 Stereotypes In YA Fiction

bonafide hustler

Our Lady of Parentheticals

my name is hannah

:)

Now with extra neurotic filling.

Two years old now.

aka cupcake

writing for kids and teens

bonafide hustler

yes

yes

Speaking in metaphors

my name is hannah

Ahead of Your Time

my name is hannah

Ahead of Your Time

my name is hannah

Ahead of Your Time

Our Lady of Parentheticals

bonafide hustler