young adult literature

young adult literature, a genre of literature geared toward readers between 12 and 18 years old. Young adult (YA) books, especially fictional works, are typically written in the voice of or from the perspective of a teenager, and they are characterized by their authors’ efforts to capture the experience of adolescence. Encompassing many subgenres, from fantasy to memoir, YA literature became a lucrative publishing market at the turn of the 21st century. At the same time, many YA books have been among those most challenged in censorship and freedom of speech battles.

Background

In the 19th century several novels featuring teenage or preteen protagonists were popular with both children and adults. These books ranged from adventure stories to didactic novels that offer moral instruction to young readers through the experiences of characters who are on the verge of adulthood. Some notable examples of 19th-century “coming-of-age” novels include Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations (1861), Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women (1868–69), Horatio Alger’s Ragged Dick; or, Street Life in New York with the Bootblacks (1868), and Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885).

However, the concept of “young adults” as a distinct category of readers with a specific set of tastes did not emerge until the 20th century. In 1930 the American Library Association (ALA) created the Young People’s Reading Round Table, a subdivision of its organization that, among other things, produced an annual list of book recommendations for young readers. In 1941, for example, the list featured such novels as The Song of the Lark (1915) by Willa Cather and The Yearling (1938) by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, handbooks about college and sports, and memoirs by aviator Amelia Earhart and boxer Jack Dempsey. That same year the ALA established the Association of Young People’s Librarians, which encompassed both children’s and young-adult services. In 1957, however, the ALA created a separate division called the Young Adult Services Division (known since 1992 as the Young Adult Library Services Association).

Seventeenth Summer and the rise of youth culture

After World War II, best-sellers such as Seventeenth Summer (1942) by Maureen Daly, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1943) by Betty Smith, and The Catcher in the Rye (1951) by J.D. Salinger demonstrated the lucrative potential of teen readers. Seventeenth Summer, in particular, is considered to be the first book written with that audience in mind. The novel tells the story of a first-love summer romance from the perspective of its 17-year-old protagonist, Angie Morrow. Considered racy at the time of its release, Seventeenth Summer also depicts teenager characters smoking and drinking. Its realistic portrayal of contemporary teenage life was regarded as innovative, and it was an integral part of the book’s marketability. In a 1959 survey of school and public libraries, Seventeenth Summer topped the list of the most popular titles in their collections. By the end of the 20th century, the book had sold more than 1.5 million copies.

The cultivation of teenagers as a distinct—and profitable—market was further reinforced by the rise of youth culture in the 1940s and ’50s. This was evident in the establishment of teen magazines such as Seventeen (founded in 1944) and the popularity of radio programs (Meet Corliss Archer [1943–56]) and movies (The Wild One [1953], Rebel Without a Cause [1955], Blackboard Jungle [1955], and Crime in the Streets [1956]) that feature teenage protagonists.

The Outsiders and the birth of contemporary YA literature

As the baby boom generation began to come of age in the 1960s, the demand for books that appealed to teenage consumers increased. In Young Adult Literature: From Romance to Realism (1996), Michael Cart notes that this era ushered in a taste for realism, typified in the novels of S.E. Hinton.

In 1967 Viking Press published Hinton’s debut, The Outsiders. Hinton was a junior in high school when she wrote the book, a gritty yet sympathetic account of the social warfare between rival teen gangs—the working-class Greasers and the rich Socs (short for “Socials”). Its characters were based on several boys Hinton knew in school in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

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Initially marketed to adult readers, The Outsiders had disappointing sales in its first run. Over time, however, the book was routinely assigned by teachers as part of middle-school and high-school reading lists. By the 21st century, it had sold more than 15 million copies and continued to appear on the curricula of many school libraries. Because of its successful reception by teenage readers and its sensitive acknowledgment of social groups and themes that had been overlooked in earlier books, The Outsiders is often credited with modernizing YA literature.

Judy Blume, “the golden age of YA literature,” and censorship battles

By the 1970s publishing had entered what is often called “the golden age of YA literature.” Authors such as Judy Blume, Robert Cormier, Paul Zindel, Lois Duncan, Robert Newton Peck, Alice Childress, and Lois Lowry crafted stories that broke new ground in YA fiction, addressing sensitive topics with complexity and frankness.

Blume’s novel Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret (1970), told from the perspective of Margaret Simon, an 11-year-old girl whose family has moved to a new town, depicts Margaret’s struggles to understand her developing body and her relationship with religion. (Margaret’s mother is Christian, and her father is Jewish.) Blume’s later novels, including Deenie (1973), Forever (1975), and Tiger Eyes (1981), explore topics such as disability, masturbation, teen sex, birth control, and parental death. Many young readers wrote her to tell her that they identified with her characters, and her books sold well. Some adults, however, deemed her subject matter inappropriate, and Blume’s novels became a prime target of book-banning campaigns.

Two of Cormier’s novels, The Chocolate War (1974) and I Am the Cheese (1976), frequently appeared on annual lists of challenged books. The Chocolate War, which centers on a teenage boy who refuses to sell chocolates in support of his prep school’s fundraiser, has been accused of being anti-authoritarian and pessimistic by some adults. Likewise, I Am the Cheese, which focuses on a traumatized teenage protagonist, has drawn objections for its language and dark subject matter. In the 1980s I Am the Cheese was one of several books that were banned by a school district in Florida, resulting in a federal class-action lawsuit brought by students who claimed that the school district had violated their First Amendment rights.

Other acclaimed YA works of this era that were targeted in book bans include Zindel’s novel The Pigman (1968), which follows two teenagers who befriend a lonely widower, and Childress’ novel A Hero Ain’t Nothin’ but a Sandwich (1973), which features a teenage protagonist struggling with a difficult home life and addiction.

Sweet Valley High and popular YA book series

In the 1980s a number of book series debuted that focused on the everyday experiences of teenagers, such as high-school friendships and sibling rivalries. Among the more popular of these was the Sweet Valley High series, created by former television soap-opera writer Francine Pascal in 1983. The books follow identical twin sisters, Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield, who attend the fictional Sweet Valley High School in southern California. Although the series’ plots sometimes address social issues such as substance use, the books were more often considered “frothy” melodramas. The first Sweet Valley High novel, Double Love, introduces the Wakefield twins as sisters fighting over the same boy. The series comprises more than 180 books and produced several spin-off series and a TV show.

Another popular book series for teens that debuted in the 1980s is The Baby-Sitters Club, created by Ann M. Martin in 1986. Initially, the series was to end at four books. Instead, it produced about 250 titles, four spin-off series, a Netflix TV series, and graphic-novel adaptations of several of the books.

Harry Potter and the resurgence of YA literature

In 1997 J.K. Rowling published Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in the United Kingdom. Centering on a boy wizard, the novel was the first in what would become a seven-book series and a global phenomenon comprising eight film adaptations. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows (2007), the last novel in the series, sold 11 million copies within 24 hours of its release.

Indeed, the first Harry Potter book ignited an explosion in YA literature. In the years that followed the debut of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, the number of YA books published per year increased dramatically, from 3,000 in 1997 to 30,000 in 2009. Among the best-selling titles of the “new golden age of young-adult literature” (as experts such as Michael Cart have dubbed it) have been the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman (1995–2000), the Twilight Saga (2005–08) by Stephenie Meyer, The Hunger Games series (2008–20) by Suzanne Collins, the Divergent trilogy (2011–13) by Veronica Roth, The Fault in Our Stars (2012) by John Green, and The Hate U Give (2017) by Angie Thomas. Notably, this YA boom boasted a variety of subgenres, including dystopian thrillers, horror, romance, science fiction, and fantasy.

Diversity in YA literature and changing readerships

In the late 20th and early 21st centuries the trend toward greater diversity was also reflected among YA authors and the characters they created. More YA books began to feature young people of color, teenagers with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ teens as their protagonists, and plots more often addressed topics such as immigration, racism, sexual abuse, gender identity, and queer sexuality. Among the celebrated books that were published in this era are Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak (1999), Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (2007), Jacqueline Woodson’s Brown Girl Dreaming (2014), Erika L. Sánchez’s I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter (2017), Akwaeke Emezi’s Pet (2019), and George M. Johnson’s All Boys Aren’t Blue (2020). However, these books have not been without their critics, and book banning remains a hot-button issue in YA literature.

In the 21st century the popularity of YA literature has been spurred by trends on social media such as #BookTok, in which readers share their book recommendations on TikTok and YA authors themselves can reach out to fans directly to market their books. Yet many of these fans are not among the genre’s traditional target audience. In 2024 The Millions reported that more than half of YA book buyers are people over age 18, and of those, a majority are between 30 and 44 years old. Meanwhile, school librarians have noted that the age range that classifies YA readership has shifted from 12 to 18 years old to ages 14 and up; moreover, the average age of protagonists in YA books of the 2020s is 17 years old. The genre also continued to evolve in the variety of subgenres, with YA graphic novels becoming increasingly popular.