Exploring the young adult genre: among teenagers and in pop culture

The dictionary meaning of the term Young Adult.

The Cambridge Dictionary's meaning of young adult is as follows,

"A person who is in his or her late teenage years or early twenties."

So does the Oxford Dictionary. But when we refer to the Collins or Mariam-Webster dictionary, it is seen that they are more specific.

"An age group including persons from about 12 years to about 18 years old: used as a reader category in libraries book publishing, etc."

So, what does the term young adult really refer to? To find out, we'll have to go back to its origin.

Young adults as a demographic.

Post-World war-2, teenagers were identified as potential consumers, whose needs and interests were separate from those of children and adults. This was because of these factors among several others:

Education: Students were spending more time amongst people of their age and developing an identity that resonated with the state of in-betweenness they felt.

Economic growth: There was a subset of teenagers who were able to invest the money they earned from part-time jobs and allowances into their personal interests due to the economic boom in this period.

Psychological studies: Federal funding allowed exponential growth in the field of psychology after WW2.

'Golden age of capitalism': Companies and brands were looking for ways to market their products and the potential teenagers had as consumers did not go unnoticed.

First known usage of term and appearance in media.

Although one of the first known Young Adult fiction books, 'Seventeenth Summer', was published in 1942, author and academic Michael Cart states that the term YA fiction-"first found common usage in the late 1960."

Initially, the YA genre tended to feature boy-girl love stories. But in the 1960s YA novels developed to tell better-rounded stories of the lives of adolescents. A popular example being The Outsider by S.E Hilton.

It was the librarians of the New York Public Library that first defined this category of fiction:

1929- NYPL's first annual "Books for Young People" list1944- NYPL librarian Margaret Scoggins changed her library journal column "Books for Older Boys and Girls" to "Books for Young Adults."

What is the need for the genre, and who does it cater to?

Teenagers need to see themselves in the media they consume, as it can give them much-needed support. It can give them information, and help them understand their emotions and those of others. At an age where they feel confused and start recognising the contradictions and hypocrisy that surrounds them, seeing characters that are going through the same things can make them feel heard.

Young adult characters in books that aren't solely based on their growth and development can still carry their weight in bringing to light some of the internal conflicts and struggles they face.

While the first question is easy to answer, the second isn't. Young Adult media is known to feature teenagers and cater to them, but that isn't the case always. An example we can use to explain this phenomenon is the series Euphoria, which takes place in a high school but is rated 18+. This is owing to nostalgia and in some cases, Youth Fetishisation, which is a complex subject outside the realm of our topic.

The point to be noted here is the fact that the portrayal of teenagers in the media may not always reflect the needs of teenagers and the adverse effects improper representation can have in normalizing certain behaviours, including the sexualization of minors.