YA Lit And It's Importance In This Day And Age

We all had experiences in our adolescent years that made us wonder if we were the only ones going through such odd things. We all felt alone. We needed someone or something to relate to. While social media was around for my generation, it made us wonder "are we all supposed to be having these experiences at this age?". Just because some people are posting about partying or extravagant vacations, does that mean we all should be?

I remember growing up I was behind the "popular" kids at my school. I wasn't dating in middle school, and I wasn't partying my freshman year of high school with the seniors. This made me feel behind and like I wasn't having the "right" adolescent experience.

However, young adult literature lets teenagers know that they aren't alone. These books fill in the gaps that social media creates to let teens know that they will have all different kinds of experiences while growing up. Also, the many different stories shared in young adult literature let kids know that one type of experience is not normal compared to all the others. Everyone's journey growing up is different and everyone has different experiences at different times.

Keith posed questions to the class about the articles for this topic, via google classroom. One question everyone had the same response to asked if we thought YA literature was a good bridge between childhood and adult literature. We all answered yes. YA literature slowly introduces more mature topics like sex, drugs, alcohol, and the list goes on. What's awesome about these books is that none of the situations that include the mentioned elements go smoothly. Each one is quirky and awkward, just like adolescence.

For all these reasons, I feel it is important for middle and high school teachers to promote these books to their students, because it shows that you as the teacher are keeping up to date with new and interesting literature, and it also shows that you care about your students enough to share stories with them that will make them feel less alone in their journey growing up.