Why YA?

"Why do you write YA?"

My mom asked me this one Sunday after talking with another church member about why she enjoyed YA books. She was curious to hear what my answer was.

And so obviously, I thought that would be a great topic for a post! Because after thinking about it, I do have some ideas on why I've generated so hard toward YA in my writing and reading.

#1: It's an important stage of life.

Teenagehood is a big time of growth and change. You're going through a lot all at once. And I know for me, books were a big escape from all that.

So I want to write YA books to provide teenagers like I was with a way to escape. To find characters that they love and worlds they want to live in.

#2: To provide hope.

Kids books tend to be lightweight and have happy endings. But just because you're a teenager doesn't mean you stop needing books full of hope and light. They need good books more than ever.

One of my biggest "whys" for writing is to write books that glorify God and bring good, wholesome books to teenagers. I want to show them that you can go through bad things and still have a happy ending.

#3: The perfect middle ground.

Middle grade books are rather short and don't have as much detail (not that I don't love them still). Adult books tend to be long, full of things I don't want to read, and too dark. YA hits the perfect middle ground for me.

It combines the magic of middle grade with some of the more serious topics of adult books. You can spend time developing the world and characters without going off for pages about nothing or having to cut it to keep to a certain wordcount.

#4: There's less pressure.

Middle grade needs to be light enough for kids to handle. Adult books (to me) have a certain amount of prestige. YA books can fall anywhere from dealing with young teens (ages 13-15) or almost adults (16-18).

That leaves a lot of room for telling different kinds of stories that will appeal to different types of teenagers. You can have a younger tone, but still write about older topics, which is a combo I enjoy.

#5: I like it.

That's a big reason right there. I enjoy YA ever since my first introduction to it (with the Hunger Games, I think). YA and I grew up together pretty much, so it's still one of the biggest genres I read. (Although using YA as a label is a topic for another day).

For me, writing YA felt natural. I probably didn't even know that's what it was called when I started writing novels in my early teens. I just wanted to write about teenagers like me. And I still do!

What genre/age range do you write? Why did you decide to write that? Tell me in the comments.