Slightly older YA

satyesu

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What would be the difference(s) between writing a typical YA romance and one for late teens to early twenties?
 

KBooks

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As a rule of thumb, YA covers 13-18. Once you're talking 18+ or out of high school, you may be writing general fiction, or New Adult.

There can be exceptions to this... Jenny Han wrote a trilogy where the MC starts as 15 in the first book, 16 in the next, and is 18 and a college freshmen in the last. Or "Fangirl" is about a college freshman, and likely snuck in as YA for marketing purposes because its author was an established YA author so that's where her audience was. But in general, after 18/high school, you may be writing NA or adult fiction.
 
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Sonya Heaney

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Also, please remember how offensive it is to people in their twenties - people who might already be married and have children of their own, people who serve in the military, people who are actual adults - to be lumped into an age category with children in seventh grade.
 

satyesu

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I didn't realize YA went that young, and I was personally pretty immature in my first college years. Sorry. :(
 

owlion

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I didn't realize YA went that young, and I was personally pretty immature in my first college years. Sorry. :(
I disagree that it's offensive (I remember an author saying that fiction for kids is fiction for everyone). It's more about what the story's focused on and, to an extent, the age of the protagonist. YA will have a protagonist in their teens (generally mid- to late, as middle grade tends to have protagonists up to around age 13 and people often read up). Adult fiction can have a protagonist who is a child or a teen, but the focus of the story will be different from middle grade or YA - there's a good thread stickied, which might be helpful.