Article about YA by a teen
- Thread starter edutton
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"I’m tired of girl/girl hate. There’s not as much of it as you think among teenage girls! We support each other. We believe in each other. I want more YA books that show this!"
Hear, hear!
Hear, hear!
Interesting to hear this take. Now if only publishers agreed, especially about the happy ending part, or lack thereof....
Great article, especially about the happy endings.
That suggests to me certain repeating tropes are not working for her. The same ones don't work for me either. I'd like to see more chosen ones earn their stripes. I want to see love relationships that have more reason behind them than destiny. And of course, I want to see female protagonists that have more going for them than having a desirable boyfriend.
It's interesting to see this:
... because I hate the trope in old sci-fi flicks where the teens see the monster/alien and no one will believe them so they take matters into their own hands.
I can see her POV, but I see two things differently. The two-boyfriend/chosen one/mean girl tropes among others, are getting tired, (for some of us more than others given the tropes are still found in best sellers). So rather than not being realistic, I think it might be more about certain tropes getting to that too predictable phase.
And the second thing, noting the stories don't represent real life, that's what makes book fantasy fun to immerse oneself in. The boy who gets bullied dreams about being the boy who gets even or who has power greater than the bully's. The girl with no boyfriend dreams about being desired by the hottest guy who rejects the popular girl. I don't think teens want to read about the lives they actually live, they want to read about the lives they wish they led.
I think DeRosa is right for the wrong reason. She's tired of some overused tropes. You cannot immerse yourself in a fantasy if the tropes have become annoying. They need tweaking.
Bet she's a developing writer soon to be writing more great stuff.
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What a great read! She totally cracked me up when she said "yesterday I learned how to make an omelette" I mean that's the reality right, teenagers wish to be twenty but they aren't and they don' t have the skills of an adult, so why would they be portrayed as such. However, there are many teenagers who do have to grow up fast, and are more responsible than their parents, I know a few like that, where the parents act like teenagers and the teenagers are the responsible ones. But it was a great read!
Me too! I'm fed up with the MC 'being beautiful without knowing it' crap, too. Why can't she be beautiful to some, and plain/ugly to others, like real people?
Great article, and some parts made me chuckle, such as Holden reminding her of boys who don't pull their weight in group projects, and the friends not knowing how to do laundry. I was in my twenties before I learned that one, but I had a friend who had a twin and an older sister, and they had to do a bunch of chores every single day after school, and their parents didn't act like teenagers.
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Whew! My protag doesn't think she's beautiful, you had me worried. It's because she doesn't look like the popular girl who the guys are obviously attracted to. But it turns out not all the guys are attracted to the popular girl.
That's very true. I was doing laundry when I was 12, chaperoning my younger sister around NYC from age 8 or 9 (granted, that was a very different time). My mom was responsible — but single, and busy. (The scenario in From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, with MG kids running away and living in a museum? That seemed quite believable to me in my late-1970s world, where adults just weren't that attentive.)
And yet, despite being responsible in various ways, I was immature in others. I didn't date as a teen (too socially maladept) and didn't learn to drive until I was 22 or so because my high school didn't have driver's ed. So I think the key is to remember that, while they may be astonishingly mature in certain ways (depending on the requirements of their lives), teens are still teens. (Btw, I still can't make a proper French omelet. Only scrambled eggs.
)I did send my characters on a no-adults road trip, which is something she singles out as unrealistic. Thanks to my agent and editor, I made it as plausible as possible in terms of the adults vetting the trip and making arrangements to keep tabs on the teens. But in my time and my family, believe me, tabs would NOT have been kept.
It's interesting that she sees Catcher in the Rye as a YA novel. While it may be sold that way now, it spent decades as adult literary fiction.
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The sad truth is, this doesn't get much better when you grow up either, especially for women. Novels where someone is instantly recognized and respected for their skill and hard work are probably wish fulfillment (nothing wrong with this, though there's always a need for more realistic stories too).
To be fair, I've run across a number of MG and YA novels where the entire plot revolved around adults not listening to kids or taking their knowledge, experiences, or skills seriously. Many of the Harry Potter books come to mind. If the grown ups had listened to the kids, the stories would have been a few chapters at most.
I heartily agree about the need for more stories centered on female relationships that aren't adversarial or based on rivalry/jealousy or the mean girls. Sure, those situations and unpleasant people (of all genders) exist, but so do warm and supportive friendships between girls and women.
I did send my characters on a no-adults road trip, which is something she singles out as unrealistic. Thanks to my agent and editor, I made it as plausible as possible in terms of the adults vetting the trip and making arrangements to keep tabs on the teens. But in my time and my family, believe me, tabs would NOT have been kept.
I may be a bit younger than you, but in the 80s, it was still pretty normal for high school students to go to rock concerts, ski trips, and even overnight camping trips and so on, without adults. School trips were carefully chaperoned, but we had a fair amount of freedom outside of school, parents depending. My folks even let me go on an overnight ski trip with friends, including my boy friend. My husband did a week-long bike trip with friends when he was 16. His mom later confessed that she was worried about him getting hit by a truck or something, but she felt it was important for him to have the experience as a part of growing up.
I don't see any of my friends and relatives allowing their 16-year old kids to go on overnight, unchaperoned ski trips or week-long bike trips with friends. Some wouldn't even allow their kids to walk or bike themselves to school until they were teenagers.
This probably varies greatly by locale, though. I can't help noticing that my friends and relatives who live in gated suburban enclaves or precious college towns are actually more protective and paranoid about their kids being out and about on their own than the parents in my middling-to-working-class neighborhood in a larger city. Lots of kids seem to walk unescorted to our neighborhood grade and middle schools.
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