On Character Age Limits in YA

So this is an EXCELLENT topic I grabbed off a loop that struck me because of a rewrite I’m working on(which is necessary and will undoubtedly make my book better). The question is “are there/should there be character age limits in YA?” And I’m blogging about it because I had way more to say about it than email permits. Plus, I thought it was relevant, what with YA being so popular – and there being so many adults out there (like myself) who like to read YA.

Obviously, yes, there are age limits. You can’t go writing YA novels about people that aren’t, well, young. But as it turns out, the age where characters become not young is murky at best. There are people who think the YA age-group stops at 18 or 19. And maybe they are right because maybe that’s the majority opinion, or the people who make decisions about what to slap a YA imprint on think so (such as a YA acquiring editor – again, I’m not bitching – it’s fine). But I rather like to think there are others out there (like me) who think that 18-about 22 is a tremendous gray area in the lives of people everywhere – and books written about such people may (I said may) still qualify as YA. Even if it’s crossover YA. I’m talking mostly about traditional college aged people. But also about young adults everywhere who are legally responsible for themselves and can, say: vote, go to college, die for their country in a foreign war, get married, have babies without attracting social workers, but can’t legally consume a beer in a bar. Yeah, I’d say that’s a hazy area in there. And one we like to keep hazy for a reason.

I’m not going to get into what the legal drinking age ought to be. Let’s suffice to say I think it’s whacked that it’s not the same as dying for your country. But it is what it is. And young adults everywhere are living in this in-between land where they leave home but can’t drink a beer, where they are responsible for their own finances but can’t afford the rent (boomerang kids anyone? sometimes it ain’t the kid’s fault. Kinda depends on the economy.)  This in-between age group still thinks 30 is old, and still shops at the stores they shopped at in high school. In other words, as much as they want to embrace being adults – they still identify with their teenage selves. And why wouldn’t they? It was literally yesterday. They aren’t being “foolish.” They are being authentic. (I would know, I’ve volunteered for YEARS with college-aged women. A compliment from them is that you don’t look a day over 25. And they have wonderment in their eyes when you admit that you are over 30, yes, and have two kids, a mortgage, a real profession… and still like to paint your toenails hot pink.)

When you’re in college, you sometimes feel like an adult-in-training. You have academic and activity “Advisors.” You have “Resident Assistants.” You answer to these people because you have to, not because you feel like you need them. (Well, sometimes they come in handy. You want them there when you have questions. And you want them to disappear when you don’t.) Many of these adult people have no authority over you unless you screw up BIG. And the results of such a happening are that older, more experienced and opinionated adults will swoop in and guide you to FIX IT. And when they commence cleaning up your screw up, the correct answer is “WHOOPS, that won’t happen again.” Whether you succeed at this stage is determined by how tall you can stand, how strong you look, and how sorry you sound while you say “WHOOPS, that won’t happen again.”

I like to write about the WHOOPS period of people’s lives. I like writing it because when I was college, I said WHOOPS fairly often, and I wanted to READ about it. I didn’t want to feel alone. Because no one is proud of their WHOOPS moments and my peers weren’t sharing theirs. I couldn’t find enough books about it out there. Because all of the young adult books were about teenages under 18. And all the adult books were about 25+ year old women who were getting married, having kids, juggling mortgages and careers, and still trying to find time to paint their toenails hot pink so they could FEEL like they felt when they were young adults and in the WHOOPS stage of life.

Weird isn’t it?

I think most people can agree that what makes a YA is not necessarily the age of the heroine, it’s the subject matter she’s dealing with. If she’s dealing with parents, first love, identifying self and the like, and she’s under 18, it’s definitely YA. But what if she’s 17 and dealing with an unwanted pregnancy? Still YA? How about an 18yo getting betrothed in Victorian England? Adult probably? Now what if she’s 19, in college and not partnered, and dealing with an unplanned pregnancy. Is this an adult book or a YA? I know, depends on how it’s written. But do you think there might a 15yo who wants to read that? Maybe she’s pregnant, or maybe she has a pregnant friend or sister. Do you think there might be a 16yo who wants to read it? What about an 18yo? A 20yo? If this was a fabulously written story, how would you market it? WHO would you market it TO?

One of the things that bothers me about YA is how “safe” it feels at times. Life isn’t always “safe”. It’s messy sometimes. And we learn the most about ourselves, our authenticiy, and our potential from the times when the muck is the deepest. When we are up to our necks in it and we’re scared we’ll drown. Some teenagers like to read about the muck, some don’t. We shouldn’t only write for the ones that don’t. And we can’t forget that teenagers are smart. They know college is coming and they are interested in what happens there! If we don’t write about the mucky murky areas that are relevant and of interest to them, then teens will read what’s available – adult books. Why does it scare us to have teens read a book about a teenager going down a dark road alone, but it doesn’t scare us when they read about adults doing it? What is more relevant to them?

I think a growing number of authors are starting to tackle the in-between college age in their books. But I don’t see a lot of it, and I’m wondering if it’s just not that popular of a topic/ age-group to write about or if it’s a really tough sell because no one knows how to market it.