YA Wednesday: What is YA, Who Should Read it, Who Should Write It, and YA Tips from Teens

The students are back, traffic is worse, the humidity is rising, and tempers are flaring. Maybe you’re a miserable office-worker who can’t find any place to park because it’s move-in day, or a student struggling to assemble IKEA furniture for your dorm room, or a parent who can’t face dragging your teen out of bed to get to school on time, or a teen going batshit crazy because your mom set all the clocks ahead so you’d get to school on time.

No matter what your reason is for feeling stressed-out, we’d like to invite you to channel your frustrations into a lively debate about YA: who can read it, who can write it, is it the devil’s spawn, or the best thing since the invention of fried ice cream. You decide.

• In 25 Things You Should Know About Young Adult Fiction Chuck Wendig tells us that “some of the bravest, strangest, coolest stories right now are being told in the young adult space.” Do you agree?
• We are so sick of the never-ending debate about whether adults should read YA. But at least 12 Things Adults Who Read Teen Books Are Sick of Hearing, makes us laugh instead of wanting to punch someone in the face.
• But wait, our kids don’t want us to read YA either. Is this because we ruined Facebook? Seriously, some young adults think adults need to be carded before cracking open that YA novel.
• To add to the debate some folks think you need to have kids in order to write about them. What do you think?
• Maybe we should all just calm down and listen to some wise advice from the people who know YA best—teens.