You're The Voice: Chelsea on YA
There is a reason that I love YA fiction better than any other genre. Firstly, it is relevant to my age (obviously) and sometimes I feel that adult books are just too serious. Although a lot of the situations aren’t realistic, I think that YA books are easier to digest. The fact that they have a beginning, middle, a conflict, and a conclusion, makes everything simpler. (At least simpler than real everyday problems that usually doesn’t have an easy conclusion). I know that teenagers tend to think a problem is 1,000 times worse than it really is, but the authors that write YA understand what it’s like. They express all of our insecurities and doubts, and even though the're older, the emotions are still there - they just disguise it better!
YA is intelligently written, it provides life lessons for anyone reading it even if you don’t realise it, and it’s the genre that’s probably the most emotionally honest. It makes you feel things that you wouldn’t have expected. I know that it makes me laugh, cry, worry and so many other things and in adult fiction you don’t normally have situations which make you feel anything with such depth.
Adults struggle with the same issues, just in different ways. YA is meant to help teenagers with life lessons; why can’t it help adults too? It can remind us of how small our real-world problems really are when faced with a complicated, emotional read. YA gets that teenagers feel everything is a big deal at the time - that’s why every problem is big, if not bigger. Just writing this has made me more grateful for what I have learnt through reading. I suggest if you’re feeling a little overwhelmed and your problem is taking over your thoughts, turn to a good YA book. I can guarantee that it will make you feel a whole lot better.
- Chelsea
