How old is too old: Is there a space for older characters in Young Adult fiction?
Erin Hosegood
(they/ them)
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‘How old is too old for Young Adult fiction’ is a hotly debated question, with writers, agents, booksellers, and readers all weighing in on the topic.
Dr Joanna Nadin (2021) says that her agent, Julia Churchill, actively encourages her writers to age their Young Adult characters down to 16 or below as any older is too close to the cusp of adulthood and writers run the risk of making their book difficult to market.
On the other side, Becky Bagnell, founder of the Lindsay Literary Agency, says that as long the story will still be ‘relevant to younger kids’ (Bagnell, 2021) and be enjoyed by school children, then she is open to novels with older protagonists, up to university-age. Her main caveat is that the story is relevant and the content appropriate for younger readers, rather than the age of the character. Young Adult fiction writer Amy McCaw (2021) said something similar, offering Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl (2013) as a novel ‘set at university but definitely enjoyed by a younger audience’ (McCaw, 2021).
The National Literacy Trust (2019) survey showed a decline in 16-18 year olds reading daily from 27.4% in 2017/18 (NLT, 2018, p. 7) to 19.2% in 2019 (NLT, 2019, p. 6). In the same survey, 24.0% of 16-18 year olds agreed with a statement saying that they ‘cannot find things to read that interest [them]’ (NLT, 2019, p. 11).
Although, there are many factors that affect whether or not a book is of interest and it is unfair to put this entirely down to the character ages, a statement from high school librarian Karin Greenberg pointing out that none of the students seem interested in ‘any books that have a character who is younger than them’ (Hershberger, 2021) leads me to believe that it is definitely one of those factors. It could be that instead of looking for Young Adult novels with older characters, these older teenagers are simply no longer interested in Young Adult fiction as a genre and want to move onto adult fiction, however with the wealth of creativity and bravery (Brown, 2021) coming out of Young Adult novels every year, this seems unlikely to me. With novels like Concrete Rose (Thomas, 2021) and The Yearbook (Bourne, 2021) published this year, it is clear that Young Adult fiction pushes the boundaries of form and content and is one of the ‘most dynamic, creatively exciting areas of publishing’ (Cart, 2008) at the moment. Therefore, I cannot believe that teenagers – even older teenagers on the cusp of adulthood – would not be interested in these stories which explore issues that they are likely to be dealing or have recently dealt with themselves.
This becomes more prominent when viewed in conjunction with recent scientific advances that highlight ‘the significance of brain development between 9 and 25 years of age’ (Fuligni et al., 2018, p. 150) which suggests that ‘structural and functional developments continue into the mid-20s’ (Fuligni et al., 2018, p. 150).
Alongside the neuroscientific backing, I believe that a lot of cultural and social experiences between the ages of 16 and 18 are quite similar, including but not limited to, first times – like kisses and relationships, the fight for ‘individualism’ (Kori, 2021), worries about school and conflict in friendships (Johnson, 2018).
Whilst perhaps the positioning is different, the central focus and many of the issues they face remain constant – so much of a person’s adolescence is spent exploring who they are and who they want to be. This is a process that continues long past school and into early adulthood. Book blogger, Katie Brown says that, even as a 28 year old, Young Adult fiction appeals to her more than its adult counterpart as she often feels like she is ‘not a ‘real adult’’ (2021) because she is still ‘struggling to find [her] feet’ (2021) which is a common theme in Young Adult novels as teenage characters explore who they are as individuals, separate from their friends and family.
This is even more notable in queer Young Adult fiction and for queer readers. In an article for The Advocate, blogger, and writer Alexander Cheves states that many queer young people wait until they ‘leave [their] parents […] to start experimenting’ (2018) which delays a lot of the experiences seen to be characteristically ‘teenage’.
Obviously, teenage years are turbulent for everyone, but there are some experiences which are exclusive to queer people that their ‘straight peers don’t face’ (Cheves, 2018) and won’t ever fully understand. Whilst this is rapidly changing and queerness is far more normalised than it was 10 or even five years ago when I was trying to work out who I was and how I could be that person, it is still not uncommon for queer young people to not have their ‘first loves and sexual awakenings’ (Gutowitz, 2019) until their late teenage years or even their early twenties, experiences that ‘heterosexuals are privileged enough to experience as actual teenagers’ (Gutowitz, 2019) delayed until their late teenage years or even their early twenties.
Due to this disconnect between experiences, it seems clear to me, as a queer writer and reader, that there is more than a space for older protagonists – there is a need for them, especially in novels featuring queer protagonists. Alice Oseman’s 2020 novel Loveless comes to mind. It is quintessentially Young Adult, a coming-of-age story of turbulent friendships, first love, and a character understanding her identity – all themes typically associated with Young Adult novels. However, it is mostly set whilst the protagonist, 18 year old Georgia, is at university and it is only then that she gets the space and the chance to explore and experiment with her identity.
Alice Oseman talks openly about her own experience coming to terms with her aromanticism and asexuality in multiple interviews, saying in one that whilst Loveless is ‘definitely not autobiographical’ (Oseman, 2020), it is closely based on her own experience and that she, like Georgia, did not explore her identity until she reached university. In another interview she urges young people to ‘take time in figuring out [their] feelings’ (Oseman, 2020) and not to ‘feel pressured to find their ‘label’’ (Oseman, 2020) until they are ready.
Reading this as someone who had similar experiences at a similar age to Georgia was affirming for me in a way that a lot of Young Adult fiction is not. Even as a teenager, I struggled to relate to many of the stories available to me, both in terms of them being overwhelmingly cishetero-oriented, but also in relation to the ages at which characters experience life-changing events. Clearly, this is my personal experience, and it is far from universal, but I feel like there are elements to it that a lot of queer young people could relate to.
I believe that everyone, no matter what, should be able to find themselves in the pages of books and be shown that ‘their experiences have value’ (Crowe, 2002) regardless of when those experiences happen. Young Adult fiction prides itself on portraying the wealth of teenage experience and it is often argued that there is ‘more diversity and representation in YA stories than in Adult Fiction’ (Brown, 2021).
However by limiting Young Adult protagonists to below 18 or even 16 years of age, we are doing ourselves and our readers a disservice. By refusing to understand and engage with the fluidity of experience, we are alienating the people who do not have these important emotional and social events at the same time as their peers. Many of those who do not get the typical teenage experience are people from the marginalised communities that Young Adult fiction strives so hard to represent.
With both the scientific advancements and an understanding of the wealth of teenage experience in mind, it makes sense to me to perhaps broaden the definition of Young Adult fiction to include the older members of this age group, maybe even so far as 25 years old, thus suggesting a need for novels with older protagonists. This is reinforced by the fact that Young Adult is also regularly read by adults outside of the expected age-range. In a study from 2012, it was seen that ‘55% of buyers of works […] designate[d] for kids aged 12 to 17 […] are 18 or older’ (Publishers Weekly, 2012) and that ‘78% of the time’ (Publishers Weekly, 2012) these books are purchased for their own reading.
However, Young Adult, as a category, already covers one of the largest age brackets (12-18) (Doll, 2012) compared to Middle Grade (9-12) or Early Readers (5-7) (Bucceri, 2021), so perhaps it is not fair to expect it to stretch further. ‘Twelve to 18 is a big spread in age, from both reading and personal developmental levels’ (Peterson, 2018), twelve year olds are not allowed as much freedom nor have they typically had a lot of the life experiences that are seen to categorise late teenage years. Perhaps it is not fair to expect writers, publishers, or readers to contend with an even broader spectrum of experience by extending YA beyond 18 years old.
But there could be a different way to do it – it is possible to argue that a 16 year old actually has more in common, both socially and developmentally (Fuligni et al., 2018), with an 18, or even 20 year old than they do with the lower end of the age bracket, so perhaps instead of simply moving the goalposts back, we need to restructure the game and find a bridge between Young Adult fiction and its more grown-up adult counterpart.
The aptly named ‘New Adult’ was first attempted as a genre in 2009 by Georgia McBride and St. Martin’s Press who requested ‘fiction similar to YA that can be published and marketed as adult’ (Naughton, 2014). Unfortunately, it was quickly dismissed as either ‘shorthand for 'older teen' or 'more explicit Young Adult'’ (Dawson, quoted in Chappell, 2014) or as a ‘marketing gimmick’ (Naughton, 2014), neither of which gave it a particularly good reputation and left the genre feeling lacklustre.
However, in recent years, the USA has seen a resurgence in New Adult novels, with writers like Casey McQuiston, author of Red, White & Royal Blue (2019), writing about and for people in their late teens and early twenties. Instead of being viewed simply as Young Adult fiction but with more sex, current New Adult novels are about characters ‘figuring out what they want from life’ (Brown, 2021) in much the same way as Young Adult fiction, except instead of ‘aiming for university’ (Brown, 2021), these characters are ‘leaving education for the first time [and] stepping onto the career ladder’ (Brown, 2021). The novels are aimed specifically towards people who no longer ‘see themselves represented in YA [after] leaving the target age range’ (Brown, 2021) but struggle to find themselves in adult novels either due to adult novels typically having middle-aged protagonists and often being written in a more literary style.
Brown (2021) also said she thinks the lack of New Adult fiction in the UK is due, in part, to its poor reputation from the late 2000s and a worry about where and how to market it. It is an important question to ask – if the target audience is 16, or even 18, to 25 year olds, where exactly might it go in a bookshop? After all, as Katherine Marciniak (2018) points out, there is already a section in most bookshops labelled ‘New Adult’ – it is, in her words, ‘for new releases in adult fiction’ (Marciniak, 2018).
So, how old is too old for Young Adult fiction? I, alongside many of the writers, publishers and readers discussed in this piece, do not believe that there should be any specific age cut-off. Young Adult fiction covers such a broad spectrum of ages and dives so deeply into the wealth of human experience, that it seems unreasonable to place restrictions as arbitrary as age onto it. Young Adult, and even New Adult, fiction should not be categorised by the age of its protagonists, but on the themes that they explore.
Adolescence and youth identity has already changed so much since it was first labelled that we have to understand and move with it – as stated previously, scientific advancements suggest that adolescence goes far beyond 16 and even 18 years of age, so why is that the cut-off for novels about people in this age range? Young adults experiences are not universal, especially those from marginalised communities who perhaps do not get the chance to engage with ‘teenage’ experiences until they are older.
Therefore, if the goal of Young Adult fiction is to reflect the richness and variety of those experiences then there should be a space for older protagonists. In fact, there needs to be. Whilst it is not an easy feat to achieve, perhaps what the UK children’s market needs is a complete overhaul of the age brackets at the top end to account for the shifting view of adolescence and the huge wealth of young people’s lives in order to better reflect the world we live in. Or perhaps we, as writers, need to worry less about attempting to fit our writing into neat boxes and instead simply write what we need to. I will leave you with the best piece of writing advice I have ever been offered: ‘There will always be someone who needs to read the story you want to write, so never stop writing no matter the difficulties you come across’ (Silvera, 2018).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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