Young Adults and Twilight

Recently I’ve immersed myself in the world of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight saga. I’ve lived there for the past two weeks, no kidding, and I can’t seem to pull myself away. This current obsession has gotten me thinking about the clamoring throngs of tweens, teens, and yes, grown women who have succumbed to the lure of Bella’s story.

I turned to my book buddy/sister-in-law extraordinaire, Karen, for some insight – it was her recommendation of Twilight, after all, that broke the proverbial camel’s back (I’d resisted it for a long, long time). Here are her thoughts:

“I think that what Twilight captures is that no matter who you are, in adolescence EVERYONE has an outside-looking-in feeling. Everyone also thinks that they’re fairly ordinary, but secretly believes that there's something spectacularly special and different about them ... special enough to captivate EDWARD. And in the meantime, you're remembering the awkward first kiss/first date/first infatuation kind of stuff ... and it's presented in a PG kind of way that you'd be comfortable reading with your own daughter or your mom."

Karen’s take spurred further thoughts about the Young Adult (YA) genre in general. One might argue that because YA novels are stories for teenagers and about teenagers, there is little in them that resonates with adults. But let’s not forget that we’ve all been there and just because we have crossed the invisible line from adolescence into adulthood doesn’t mean we have to dismiss the experience. Our teenage years are crucial ones and can be brutally intense. Life then is immediate and riddled with angst, change and a lack of control. It’s a time of discovery and false starts and hesitant steps – particularly when it comes to relationships – with friends, first loves, parents, and one’s own self.

It seems obvious to me that YA novels rarely garner the attention they deserve, with a few notable exceptions, like Meyer’s books, Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, and the phenomenal Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. Maybe it’s because adults “rule the school” – they are the authors, publishers, marketers, booksellers, etc., of the YA genre – and the problems of teenagers can seem trivial in a world of pressing adult issues like the economy, family responsibilities, all the varied and constant concerns that accompany adulthood’s status.

But to me, that’s viewing life through a narrow lens. Reality is not so different when one enters adulthood; it just becomes couched in “bigger” pictures, “greater” obligations, and “more” responsibility. Life doesn’t get easier as we grow older. We have to learn to endure more, make harder decisions, factor in the needs of others and weigh the costs carefully. Is this why so many of us get stuck – bogged down in a quagmire of responsibility and indecision that when we finally do move it’s defined as a “crisis” rather than a release?

Here’s another thought from Karen:

"Lots of people dismiss YA literature, but I think that there are some really original and interesting stories to be found there. And it's kind of cool to be reading the same thing as the teenager I hired to watch my three kids. Makes me feel like I've still got it and forget that I'm stretch-marked, crow-footed, and driving a minivan like a loser."

So maybe the take-away here is that it’s not a requisite that we see ourselves in these YA stories, but that they can serve as timely or poignant or funny reminders of what others are going through right now…and that, to them, these issues matter. After all, teenagers are people, too, and their voices deserve to be heard not just by their peers but by all of us.