 Recently, I saw a video made by my fellow booktuber, Elliot Brooks, wherein she talks about whether we need an age range and or a section in bookstores for the new adult genre. A lot of her reasoning revolves around some of the content in modern young adult literature as a tad inappropriate and so having another category between YA and adult would help people make more informed decisions about what they're reading. And to be clear, I'm not trying to start drama or even criticize Elliot here, I just have some extremely strong disagreements with what she said, and it made me think about the broader subject of how we should handle dark or mature content in media aimed at younger audiences. Also, there's going to be very little editing in this video because I don't know what I would put here and you're all probably going to be browsing Reddit in another tab while you listen anyways. For starters, what exactly is YA? It's easy to pick out children's books and middle grade books, but this one is hard to pin down. It's not even like it's hard to define, but you know it when you see it, basically every conversation I've ever had about YA has wound up devolving into an argument about whether or not something qualifies as YA or even if YA is an actual genre or not. Rather than getting into specifics, let's just agree that it's a category aimed at kids from around 12 to around 18, okay? Around the same time I saw Elliot's video, I read a book called The Cheerleaders, which would most likely qualify as new adult or adult to many people. Spoilers ahead if you want to read it. It's a really good book. Seriously, spoilers and some seriously dark stuff are going to be brought up ahead. If that bothers you, don't watch. The Cheerleaders is a murder mystery following a 16-year-old girl named Monica. Five years earlier, two Cheerleaders were killed in a car accident, two more were brutally murdered, and another, Monica's older sister, committed suicide, all in the span of less than a month. But when Monica discovers some new information about what went down, she starts to think that all the deaths were connected and she begins to investigate. Sounds like a fluffy, fun mystery, right? Wrong. It is dark. Within the first 30 pages, we learn about all of the deaths, we learn that Monica got statutory rates by a 27-year-old man, and that she's having an abortion because of it. Then later on, the story deals with alcoholism, drug abuse, domestic violence, school shootings, death by drunk driver, and depression. And then there's more statutory rate, because guess what? Someone who will do that once is someone who will do it two, three, or even more times. By the end, we learn that one of the two girls who was murdered was also in a, uh, massive air quotes around this next word, relationship with Brandon, the before-mentioned rapist. He was afraid of her telling someone and confronted her, the situation got heated, then violent, and then he wound up killing her and her friend. In the end, he gets caught, just like in most mystery books, but the car accident really was just a car accident and Monica's sister really did kill herself. There's no one to blame for that, no one that can be brought to justice. Just a tragedy that the characters have to learn to live with. None of this is treated with kid gloves or glossed over in any way. All the horror and disgust comes through. All of it is dealt with in a mature manner. When bad things happen, you can move past them, even if it changes you. There are other young adult works that deal with mature themes, too. Love, Hate, and Other Filters has a protagonist that's forced to reconcile her immigrant parents' beliefs with her own desires and American-ness. Zombie has a protagonist who was raised by a white supremacist and has to not only get over the indoctrination he put her through, but reconcile her love for him with his murderous beliefs. Even the slew of dystopian Hunger Games knockoffs got across how awful it is to be forced to live in a society that views you as subhuman. I could literally come up with examples all day. And I know that some people think that teenagers shouldn't be exposed to things like sex, drugs, extreme violence, sexual assault, harsh-swearing, or other mature ideas. Or at the very least, they feel media with this sort of content shouldn't be specifically aimed at teens. Elliot mentions that we can't be informed consumers when content that isn't really for teens is put in the teen section. The thing about that is... Teenagers have to put up with that shit in real life. It's not fair, but it's the truth. Growing up is hard. You have very little freedom or power. In fact, in most cases, you have little of anything, except energy and desire for sleep and or sex. You don't even know who the hell you are at that age. Dealing with things like school and your first romantic feelings are bad enough on their own. They don't happen in a vacuum, though. This is an age where you might first have to deal with an older relative dying, or the time when mental illness first develops, or when you have to figure out what it's like to be horny and how to deal with that in a healthy way. And unfortunately, that can lead to even worse things. In my experience, there are three things that, when they're brought up in a serious conversation, you can always tell who has experience with it and who doesn't. Suicide, drug abuse, and sexual assault. Once you've dealt with these personally or someone that you love has, it ceases to be an abstract in your mind. It's real. All the anger, despair, disgust, sadness, anxiety, it's real to you. So when you meet someone else who has the same problems, you're going to have more empathy for them. You'll have more desire to fix the problem. If you have no idea what these things are like outside of a caricature that you've built up in your mind, or that you've heard about third hand from somebody else, you're probably not going to see it as a priority. And these are the people who think that drug addicts are weak and just need Jesus. The people who think suicide can be solved by cutting taxes. The people who unironically say shit like, he shouldn't be punished for a mistake he made when he was young. Putting these sorts of themes in things that not only young people can enjoy, but is aimed at them gives them a framework for figuring out real world problems and tragedies. Even if you never meet an alcoholic, seeing fictional characters go through the trials that involves can help you have some sort of understanding of the process. All this statutory rape stuff in the cheerleaders struck a really deep nerve in me because I had a teacher that did that shit when I was in high school. And I'm ashamed of the way I reacted to it. I thought it was bad, sure, but I was much more amused at the scandal of it all. It took several years for me to realize the gravity of what happened. Had I been exposed to something like the cheerleaders before that, it wouldn't have taken so long. To put it another way, it would have made me a better person. And I think it would do the same for others. Obviously, I'm talking about works that do this well, and the ones that do it poorly... Well, yeah, they do it poorly and in many cases they hurt more than they help. But still, the ones that do it well should be allowed to do it. Long story short, I don't think we need a new adult section in stores. I think that kids from 12 to 18 can handle dark, mature content. More than that, I think they should be exposed to that sort of thing to help them learn how to deal with it before it hits them or their loved ones by surprise. I just felt the need to get that out there. Again, no hate for Elliot. I went off in a different direction from what she was talking about anyways. Watch her video if you want to get a different perspective on it. And if you disagree with me, that's fine. I understand that this is a contentious subject to many people. Just be nice to each other in the comments. And in general, please. Huge thanks to Appo Savalainen, Christopher Hawkins, Joseph Pendergraft, Melanie Austin, and the rest of my patrons, y'all are... Yeah, y'all are the best, I mean it. If you're not a patron, consider becoming one and getting your name up here. And if you can't do that, then liking, sharing, and commenting on this video helps to spread it around. And considering how I can already hear the demonetization demon breaking down my door, I could really use that. See you later. Bye.