There are a lot of things I find remarkable about the virtual explosion of the YA market in the wake of Harry Potter and Twilight. One is simply how many books there are for young adults, so many more than there were when I was that age. After reading all the original Nancy Drews, Babysitter's Clubs, and Sweet Valley Highs by age nine, I moved right into adult fiction, toting copies of Larry McMurty's Lonesome Dove and John Jake's North and South into my sixth grade reading class. There simply weren't a lot of young adult books available, and though I read my share of Christopher Pike and R.L. Stine, they didn't hold a lot of appeal for me.
When I was fifteen, there weren't shelves and shelves of books like this. I survived for a long time on the works of female musicians, '80s pop stars and rockers and '90s riot grrls like Madonna, Joan Jett, Johnette Napolitano, Chrissie Hynde, Kathleen Hanna, Kim Deal, Tanya Donelly, Ani DiFranco, Liz Phair, and Tori Amos. They were my voice; I couldn't find a corollary in books, television, or film. FN3.
I had to search for female protagonists in literature to identify with, to be inspired by. While I eventually discovered the works of Dorothy Allison, Virginia Wolf, Connie Willis, Alice Walker, Annie Dillard, bell hooks, and Toni Morrison (all of whom I still recommend), those writers didn't reach me until I was in my early-mid twenties. It took a long time for me to find my voice, to tell my story, to know it was important and valuable.
In ten or fifteen years, these girls will graduate from college and enter the workforce. They will have careers and incomes and purchasing power. And their experiences with these books will tell them that their stories deserve time and exploration. Their adventures are every bit as important as their male counterparts. Their lives are valuable. Their knowledge is powerful.
And they will have learned it from writers like Josephine and Marni, like Beth Revis and Lauren Kate, like Jennifer Lynn Barnes and Leigh Fallon, like Suzanne Collins and Sophie Jordan and Sara Zarr, Melissa Marr, Jeri Smith-Ready, Margaret Stohl, Kami Garcia, Maggie Stiefvater, Stacey Jay, Victoria Schwab, Carrie Ryan, Sarah Rees Brennan, Kelley Armstrong, Alyson Noel, Melissa de la Cruz, Richelle Mead, P.C. Cast, Laini Taylor, and probably tons of others I am forgetting. FN4. And yes, even Stephenie Meyers and J.K. Rowling, who helped expand and relaunch earnest interest in the genre, even if one wrote a less than perfect female protagonist and the other wrote primarily about a boy, because there are strong female characters in those stories, too. FN5. And those stories are quickly being turned into movies and television series, which will inspire more and more stories, echoing forever forward.These young female readers, as grown women, will be creating and managing and participating in media and the marketplace of ideas, and they will expect, as a matter of course, that their ideas, stories, desires, and experiences be treated with dignity and respect and given equal opportunity to flourish. This was the thought that gave me hope when I saw the heartbreaking documentary Miss Representation, a film about the continuing shortage of women in positions of power, the biased view we see of women in media, and the disproportionate lack of coverage for women's stories and issues. FN6. These young women are hearing a different message every time they pick up one of these books.
When I was fourteen, Tori Amos had her first hit with "Silent All These Years." Twenty years later I still remember the desperate urgency that made me cling to that song, lying in my bed and listening to its words over and over again:
I got something to say, you know, but nothing comes.
Yes, I know what you think of me. You never shut-up.
Yeah, I can hear that.
But what if I'm a mermaid in these jeans of his with her name still on it?
Hey, but I don't care 'cause sometimes, I said sometimes,
I hear my voice and it's been here --
silent all these years...
My scream got lost in a paper cup.
I think there's a heaven where some screams have gone...
Years go by.
Will I still be waiting for somebody else to understand?
Years go by.
If I'm stripped of my beautyand the orange clouds raining in hand?
Years go by.
Will I choke on my tears till finally there is nothing left?
One more casualty.
You know, it isn't easy, easy, easy.
But what if I'm a mermaid in these jeans of his with her name still on it?
Hey, but I don't care 'cause sometimes, I said sometimes,
I hear my voice...
I hear my voice...
I hear my voice.
And it's been here: silent all these years.
I've been here, silent all these years.
If I were to hope for one thing for the daughters of the world present and future, it would be that they wouldn't spend so many years in silence, reaching for their own voice, wondering if its been stolen away to some heaven that holds the silenced screams of generations of women past. My brother recently told me my sixteen-year-old niece is hard at work on her first novel. She is sixteen, but she already knows her voice matters. I see the same thing over and over when I go to book readings - crowds of women and girls, all clamoring for more stories about themselves and the people they hope to be.
When I look at the stories crowding Young Adult fiction shelves today, with all their flaws and foibles, I still see something revolutionary: an overwhelming sense that women have stories of heroism and adventure to tell and to hear. These writers may be sparking the most important feminist change in media today, one that will continue to bear fruit long after these books leave the New Release shelves.So I'll let the haters who dismiss the growth in YA fiction as a trend hate all they want; I'm a historian, and I think history will bear me out. Right now YA fiction is sparking a subtle feminist revolution that we will feel the tremors of for decades to come. These writers are creating a more equal world by virtue of their contributions, by responding to a need young women didn't even know they had because they lacked the language to express it.
Viva la revolution, my young readers! Your story gives me hope, and it is the story I hope to hear next.
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FN1. I find it irksome that someone would dismiss the Harry Potter books because the protagonist is a child and teen; the series will likely last a millenia over. Over 450 million individual books have been sold, more than any other series of books. If generations hence there are archaeologists trying to determine what people were reading and thinking during the late 20th and early 21st centuries, you'd be foolish not to realize the trial and tribulations of a small bespeckled wizard would be high on the list. You can knock plebeian literature all you want, but I always think it is worth remember that Shakespeare was written for the masses, as was Jane Eyre. Sometimes what makes literature great is not its rich lyrical writing or thick subtext, but that it moves people of all kinds the world over. The Boy who Lived will, indeed, live -- long after the critiques who have dismissed him have been returned to dust.
FN2. You can see the video that inspired this post below.
FN3. Okay, maybe BTVS. And also possibly Felicity, a little. But both those shows were created by men.
FN4. This isn't to say there haven't been authors doing this for years (two that immediately spring to mind are Tamora Pierce and Ursula La Guin, who deserve their share of high praise and glory) but more that the sheer volume now sends an overwhelming message that women's stories are valuable, in the same way that having to hunt for a female author and/or protagonist in the past sent the message they were not.
FN4. This isn't to say there haven't been authors doing this for years (two that immediately spring to mind are Tamora Pierce and Ursula La Guin, who deserve their share of high praise and glory) but more that the sheer volume now sends an overwhelming message that women's stories are valuable, in the same way that having to hunt for a female author and/or protagonist in the past sent the message they were not.
FN5. I remain decidedly Teams Hermione, Alice, and Bella Should Go To College.
FN6. Trailer available below. I highly recommend seeing it if you can.
