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Under The Influence


I've been surfing the blogosphere today and have run across some really interesting posts regarding how the online adult YA community is influencing the books teens read, and not necessarily in a good way. If you haven't read Hannah Moskowitz's blog post on the subject, I suggest you do. It raises a lot of tough questions.

I understand where Hannah is coming from. Since most YA writers are not teens themselves, and I don't know of any teen agents, there is an inevitable adult influence on YA. Maybe that influence is drifting dangerously close to shoving things down teens' throats that they never would have decided to read on their own because it's just not interesting to them.

I love reading YA, but I also enjoy adult fiction, and honestly, if I didn't know I was reading YA, sometimes I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the two until I'm well into the book. Of course, there's that whole "new adult" category, but we'll leave that discussion for another day.

I know my teenage son is old enough to decide what he wants to read, but does that mean that if I get my hands on a terrific YA novel I think he would like, I shouldn't suggest it to him? Of course, that very same novel was probably recommended to me on a blog or website piloted by an adult. So am I part of the problem? Are you?

5 comments:

Christine Fonseca said...

I think adults recommending or influencing teens is NOT a bad thing...any more than it is when my Teen recommends a books or something to me. Just a thought

PT Dilloway said...

I can honestly say that I am not part of the problem.

Lisa Potts said...

RM, LOL. I'll admit that this time you are not part of the the problem.

Christine, I tend to agree with you.
I know some teens who wouldn't read at all if a book wasn't recommended to them.

I took an impromptu poll of my children's friends, and roughly 75% had never heard of Mockingjay which was heavily hyped by the adult YA community.

Are those of us who write, read and blog about YA just living in our own little bubble, oblivious to the actual interests of teens?

Samantha VĂ©rant said...

The kids here in France seem to be into Manga. Maybe adults are creating the best YA sellers. Mockingjay? Only my friends have read it...

Lisa Potts said...

My son went through a Manga phase but he seems to be onto something new now. It's funny how trends run differently in other countries.

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