I recently hired a “mother’s helper.” Thirteen-year-old Sarah comes over on Sunday mornings for three hours and entertains my three-year-old in the family room while I write/read/enjoy the Sunday papers in blessed silence. This past Sunday, I was correcting the galleys of my first young adult novel, which will be published next May by Random House. As I read, I imagined Sarah reading the book—and I PANICKED. Sweet, shy, fresh-scrubbed Sarah isn’t old enough to read this, is she? According to the “12 and up” age range, she is. GULP.
The book is about the unexpected friendship that develops between an out-of-control emancipated teen queen movie star (Theodora) and a “regular” sixteen-year-old girl from the suburbs (Emily). The movie star’s reputation is so bad (the paparazzi recently caught her having a ménage a trios at the beach with her boyfriends, a twin-brothers boy band) that her agent drags her kicking and screaming back to her hometown to film a reality TV show about how she’s really just a regular teen—misunderstood by the media. She moves in with a host family and shares a room with Emily, a high school junior whose boyfriend just broke up with her because she told him she’s not ready for sex—or anything remotely close to it. Cameras film their every move—as Theodora attempts (and fails) to be a normal teenager taking math tests and shopping for a prom dress at the mall, and as Emily deals with suddenly going from invisible to It Girl because of who her roommate is.
The story is told in both the movie star’s and the regular teen’s points of view. If this were solely the regular teen’s book, just her point of view, I’d hand the babysitter an advance review copy and sign it. But half the book is Theodora’s, and she has a big voice. It’s not what she does that worries me (she doesn’t do drugs or drink, and with the exception of the beginning of the book, she doesn’t have sex on stage)—it’s her attitude, her complete lack of self-esteem and her complete lack of awareness of that fact. To me, she’s a realistic character loveably drawn. Her behavior doesn’t necessarily have consequences; some of what she does/thinks/gets away with comes with the territory of being an emancipated millionaire–and famous–at age sixteen. Something inside her changes by the end of the book (for the good) and she’s not quite the same girl she was in the beginning. I think it’s more the reader who will go through changes while reading—liking her, hating her, feeling compassion, disgust, worry and ultimately being assured that Theodora developed the first drop of self-esteem to help her make good choices.
This is all brand new territory for me. I’ve never written a young adult novel before, never had to think about my audience in this way. The responsibility I feel is awesome; I suppose that’s what led to the panicky feeling. As the characters in my book discover, there’s really no such thing as a regular teen.
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Yikes! Sixteen year olds having menages? Where’s the fainting icon? I admit to not reading YA since I was…a YA
But it appears I’ll have to brush up on them 
Sometimes working in a bookstore, I think ‘WOW, this is what they’re reading now?’ as I browse through the teen section and admittedly some of them even catch my curiosity. But then, I think back on what I was reading at that age and laugh. Even though some of it might not have been quite so explicit, a lot of the themes are still the same and kids grow up so fast these days that it probably won’t phase them.
Plus, look what they see on TV. Paris Hilton — need I say more?
It sounds fabulous, Melissa. I think today’s teens are so much more aware than I was at that age that the honesty is going to be appreciated. Question for you – what made you decide to do YA?
I’ve come to realize, from my nephews, that teens are often way more advanced than we believe — and also more sophisticated in their reading material. (This doesn’t mean I didn’t flinch when I learned my cousin’s 14 year old daughter took my first book to school and read the love scenes in the bathroom with her girlfriends.
Then I remembered that I did the same with The Godfather at that age.)
I think your mother’s helper will ‘get’ the book with its underlying issues and the character conflicts.
Melissa, it sounds wonderful! I think your last line is the one that’s really true:
“As the characters in my book discover, there’s really no such thing as a regular teen.”
Congrats Melissa – sounds like you leapt out of a comfort zone and landed on a gem. With the way teens and tweens are developing at such a dramatic pace today, you might find that having a book that doesn’t necessarily feed them sugary goodness about the world (and especially the effects of fame on teens) will be well accepted. I say so long as her Mom doesn’t disaprove, hand your baby sitter a copy of your book, and get her reaction from it – call it free market research, if you will.:wink:
The book sounds terrific – congratulations! I think that kids will read to their own interests and levels – and they can read things that go right over their heads. So I wouldn’t worry! YA books are a wonderful way to introduce kids to reading!
Oooh, this looks like a great read. Let us know when we can find it in the bookstores!
I do think YA readers are more sophisticated than they were when I was a YA. I remember being scandalized by Judy Blume’s “Forever”, and now I’ll bet most YA would roll their eyes at the passages we’d all marked and passed around. Our movies and tv shows and even music today expose these kids to a lot, so it only stands to reason they’d expect the same from their reading material.
But it is scary. Especially since I have a daughter only six shy years away from being a teenager. Yikes!
Thanks so much for these generous responses!!
Jo, I’ve always wanted to write YA, but the right idea never presented itself to my head until last year!