Fortnight of Guests: Mind Reader (Think Young As An Adult)

Hi everyone! My name is Franny and I’m the blogger behind Mind Reader. I would like to say a big… no, wait, a huge THANK YOU to Megan for giving me this amazing opportunity. I’ve never done anything like this before so I really hope you’ll like it. I look forward to seeing you all amongst my followers!

Franny

THINK YOUNG AS AN ADULT

When I think about YA, the first thing that comes to mind is the Twilight saga.
I come from Italy, from a place where adults are ashamed of even thinking about this genre. I grew up with chick-lit books and then I discovered Laurell K. Hamilton. I know, I know, she’s anything but YA, but she opened a new world for me. A world where vampires and creatures of the night are real… A world where people have special powers. A world where girls fall in love with these creatures. Stephenie Meyer and the Twilight saga gave a huge boost at the YA genre. I had a bit of a hard time reading Twilight at the beginning, as I was used to another kind of content and all I thought was: This is boring, nothing happens. Then I fell into this world and never wanted to leave again.

I have since moved to the UK where I’ve noticed that, although the Twilight phenomenon in Italy has massively increased, adults are still ashamed of buying these books, even if they don’t buy them for themselves. An even more important thing (which fortunately came to mind while I was writing), is that it’s really difficult – if not impossible – to keep up with the rest of the world, as the publishing schedule is not up to date. For example, if US releases “book 4” in a saga, Italian teens sometimes are lucky if book 1 has been printed in translation already. And there is not the wide choice you find in English-speaking countries.

Since I moved to London, things drastically (and happily) changed. I see a mum or even a grandmother in the YA/teen section every time I walk into a bookstore. People act like it’s a normal thing to do. And it really is. There is nothing to be ashamed of; I’ve also seen middle-aged women browsing the adult fiction corner. Let’s face it: we were all teenagers once, so is it really so wrong to read and dream (and write) about young love, whether it’s paranormal or not. Have we forgotten that most of the authors of these novels are adults. And to be honest, more than half of the followers I have are adult mothers - and readers of this exciting genre that is YA. I’ve read quite a few novels of the kind now, and I like being able to relate to the characters, like I’m still a teenager on the edge of my first love. It makes me remember my years as a teen.