Discussion: Age Appropriation, Mature Content and YA

*Disclaimer: In no way do I mean to offend anybody by this post. Nor am I suggesting that you not read the titles I have mentioned in this post. Also, these are my views only, and do not represent the views of my lovely co-bloggers. It is just a discussion on a topic which I think is important.* 

As I'm sure I've mentioned a million times, I work in bookstore in the UK. And, more often than not, I have parents asking me for recommendations for their children. However, after one particular conversation with a mother, I've been reconsidering what is considered age appropriate and if YA/Teen Fiction has a responsibility to create content which is suitable for that particular audience, or that comes with guidelines and age recommendations. 

In the UK, it's said that 1 in 10 children aged 5-16 suffers from a diagnosable mental health disorder. That's 3 in every class.  It's also said that "between 1 in every 12 and 1 in 15 children and young people deliberately self-harm and "there has been a big increase in the number of young people being admitted to hospital because of self harm. Over the last ten years this figure has increased by 68%." 

I wanted to share those figures with you because what this particular customer said to me was shocking, and therefore made me think about the content that, as a store and throughout the blogging world, we promote. By no means am I suggesting sensitive topics should not be talked about, because that is not a reflection of the teenage experience. I'm saying that should not be idealised or romanticised.

The book in question was Gayle Forman's I Was Here - her latest release about "eighteen-year-old Cody Reynolds in the months following her best friend's shocking suicide" - a topic that has surged in the numbers of publication this year alone. And as my customer handed me the book for her to pay, she reconsidered and decided to read the blurb before she bought her 13 year old daughter the book. After reading it, she turned to me and said: "I don't understand this. It seems to be popular for them to be reading about death, self harm and suicide. She's too young." 

When I first started reading YA it was through a campaign called YA Saves. A project, and for some a reading challenge, to read YA that deals with trauma or 'teenage experiences' in retaliation to an article stating that YA was trivial to prove that YA could have a profound affect on a persons life. Which is, yes, a phenomenal thing. But, it would be misleading to ignore that books can do wonderful things but also terrible things and that, while going through puberty, high school and general confusing times, you can be impressionable. 

In no way am I suggesting that YA should be censored, because it shouldn't. The great thing about YA is the flexibility to talk about any matter of thing with sensitivity and exploration. There is nothing I love more than LGBT YA and I believe that could help somebody truly become at ease with themselves through hearing of somebody else's experience. What I wouldn't want is self harming, suicide, eating disorders and the like to be normalised as part of teenage culture because it is predominant in popular culture and what they are exposed to. Although nothing to do with YA or Literature, it is the main problem I have with websites such as Tumblr. Sites promoting things such as "ProAnna" or self-harm and even depression almost reflect peer pressure in the way it can be romanticised. And if the content is constant online and deemed as popular and the "in thing" in popular culture, whether that be film, tv games or books, it creates an issue. 

YA authors need to stay true to their story, characters and the experience they are sharing. But I also believe they have a responsibility to the reader, more importantly when talking of a YA and Teen Audience, to show true and raw experiences, but not to romanticise negative experiences and ways of dealing with them. If you're going to write about emotional/physical trauma, we need to be talking about offering support systems to give out the help that is needed, or publishers need to be talking about age recommendations.  Often when I read I don't tend to consider how different readers may read the same book. I don't think of how I at different parts of my life - either ages or going through rough times - would read a certain book, but I think the conversation needs to start. Because for the same reason I wouldn't want to sell a fourteen year old girl a copy of Fifty Shades of Grey, I also wouldn't want to sell her a copy of a book where suicide/self-harm/eating disorders or staying in an abusive relationships is the deemed the resolution or the desirable thing to do. YA is a genre which is fantastic for being life-affirming, special and unique, but I do believe there needs to be a conversation on age appropriation and mature content. 

YALC - Are you coming?

It's a busy, busy week at work - which is my excuse for not having a review ready this week. I was wondering what to post earlier today at just about the same time as I saw a stream of tweets about YALC (the young adult literature convention in London). This got me EXCITED. I had a wonderful time at the event last year, and having had that experience I feel as though I can have an even better time this time around.

What does this have to do with feminism?

A huge theme of the event last year was regarding diversity in YA fiction. The event celebrated the diversity YA reads already have, and pushed for more. Whether we were talking race, gender, or sexuality - there was a discussion to be had. I can't imagine things will be all too different this year.

So I have dug out an old blog post that I wrote recapping the event for you to read. Hopefully something, somewhere in this post will inspire all you Brits to come along. And if you are coming, make sure you let us know in the comments or @FemsTalkBooks. We can all arrange a meet up!

Go ahead, laugh at year old me...

This weekend saw the first EVER UK Young Adult Literature Convention take place at London Film and Comic Con. The event was curated by Children’s Laureate Malorie Blackman (a superstar, lets be honest) and it was a SMASH HIT. Seriously. As a writer and reader of YA it was heart-warming to see so many passionate people in attendance! There have been, and will be, gazillions of these summary posts. But hey, this is the first time I’ve done anything like this so I’m getting in on it. I feel like a true book blogger/talker/thing now. So proud.

I went to the event with my brother and, to be honest, we had no idea what to expect. We had early bird tickets and got there by about 9.30. There was a terrifyingly long queue when we turned up, and we walked past it with the blind belief that our early bird tickets meant we did NOT have to stand there. Luckily, we were correct. We queued for about 45 minutes (which was barely anything compared to some) in a very orderly winding circle (so stereotypically British) and then we were inside.

I was overwhelmed. My main interest was in YALC but I loved pretty much everything on display at Comic Con. We browsed the stalls, I spent way too much money, and after the first hour I was already starting to feel exhausted. There were SO many people, and it was so difficult to move around! It was just incredibly draining.

When I finally found the YALC section, I proceeded to grab a ton of free swag and spend too much money on books (OFC).

BOOOKS

I’m desperate to love More Than This(early signs are good) because I LOVE Patrick Ness but didn’t really enjoy The Knife of Letting Go. Similarly, Fangirl is a book I’m hoping to love, because I wasn’t crazy about Eleanor & Park. I am REALLY excited about Half a King because I have read and LOVED Joe Abercrombie’s adult books. Cannot wait to see what he can do for YA! And finally,Checkmate! I’ve actually read the whole Noughts and Crosses series, but I only own the first book for some reason. The main reason I grabbed this one was because I really wanted to get it signed which brings me too…

…my only disappointment with the day was with MYSELF. I did NOT make the most of the opportunity. I think that in future I’ll skip the Comic Con stuff and I’ll focus entirely on YALC. I made the mistake of switching buildings to the gaming zone before Malorie Blackman’s signing. By the time I got back through the press of people, my knees were killing me and the queue was miles long. I ended up getting exactly ZERO books signed, which is a massive fail on my part.

I did go along to two of the panels though, and it was really great hearing from the authors! I went to the Dystopia panel (thanks Claire) mainly for Malorie Blackman (she is literally the coolest) and Patrick Ness (he is literally the second coolest after Malorie). I’m not actually crazy about Dystopia for the most part, but it was really great to hear them (and Sarah Crossan) talk about why they think dystopia is so popular. I loved that they all seemed to agree that it is better to write a story BEFORE you pick a genre, because so many novels cross genres and shouldn’t be stuck in one box.

The second panel I saw was the fantasy panel, the one I was determined to get to! In a way this one was a little bit disappointing as I didn’t really think the questions were very focused on fantasy. The answers were great but they seemed to be more generic YA questions. That said, I wasn’t familiar with ANY of these authors before the panel, and I’m suddenly dying to read something by each of them (Ruth Warburton, Amy McCulloch, Frances Hardinge and Jonathan Stroud). I really loved what they had to say about their YA audience. They all agreed that they don’t think about writing for a younger audience, they just write stories. They write for everyone! Similar to how the dystopia suggested books shouldn’t be holed into one genre, this panel suggested the same for age groups.

The coolest part of the day was getting to meet other bloggers! I’ll be honest…I was kinda fangirling over meeting Amber, Tatum and Rinn. I’ve been following these guys for much longer than I’ve been commenting on their blogs/tweeting them (Well, technically Rinn a little less so because it was Amber that recced me in that direction but let’s not get picky with the details). It was seriously SO COOL. (Even though I made an idiot of myself with Rinn, but a day isn’t a day unless I’m an idiot at some point.) I also met and chatted with Claire and Hannah. Our meetings were brief, seeing as we were all running all over the place, but it was really cool! Hopefully we can all meet up again soon with tea and books and BOOK CHATS! Especially because I wasn’t able to meet Daphne and Asti.

Overall, YALC was exhausting but it was just so exciting to be there amongst so many other book lovers. I definitely want to go to more of these things in the future. Now I have a better idea of what to expect I’ll be more prepared, and will hopefully get some signatures! It was just a brilliant event, and when people try to tell me that young people don’t want to read I’m just gonna laugh and point.