We must first understand the birth of what is commonly known as young adults, not in the literary sense, but rather as a group of people in our society. In order to understand what young adults are, must keep in mind that teenagers were not a designated demographic until the end of WWII when studies were conducted on these groups. It is thanks to things such as the abolishment of child labor, the advances in psychology, and technological advances that this demographic was finally known to the world at large. It is after this that merchandise directed to teens, clothes, music, films, and books, was born.
Regarding literature, Young Adults Novels were firstborn when in 1906. Two librarians from the New York Public Library, Anne Carroll Moore, and Mabel Williams developed sections that might interest teens. However, it was the librarian Margaret Scoggin who finally changed the name from Books for older boys and girls to Books for Young Adults.
One of the first young adult novels is Seventeen Summer by Maureen Daly, one of the things that set this story apart was that Daly was writing with teenagers in mind as her intended audience. Nevertheless, this genre started to develop and evolve in the 60s. One of the most famous Young Adult Novels of this time is S. E. Hinton’s The Outsiders (1967). This novel was first placed as an Adult Novel, where it failed. After that, a librarian decided to move it to the Young Adult section, where it was a rotund success. The novel explores family, friendship, social classes, and teenagers looking to discover their identities. It became clear in this novel that teenagers were drawn to contemplation on what it meant to be a teenager.
In the 80s Young Adult Literature started to move towards the subgenre of horror fiction such as Goosebumps by Stine (1992). While in the 90s took on the subgenre of school-centric fiction: The Baby-Sitters Club by Ann M. Martin (1986).
Other subgenres that were developed from 00- the 10’s were the subgenre of Paranormal Romance such as Twilight (2005), Fallen (2009), and The Vampire Academy (2007), and the subgenre of Dystopia such as The Maze Runner (2009), The Hunger Games (2008) and Legend (2011).
Finally, we can say that Young Adult Novels are a designated literary market for teenagers, and it mostly applies to coming-of-age stories. Among the characteristics of these novels, we can find:
- The protagonist is a teenager.
- The events in the story revolve around the protagonist and the struggle to resolve the conflict.
- The story is often told from the viewpoint and in the voice of a young adult.
