---
title: What Exactly Is Young Adult Literature? A Brief History
description: Young adult literature dominates bookstores and movie theaters these days - how did it become the book juggernaut it is?
image: https://blog.bookstellyouwhy.com/hubfs/The_outsiders_1967_first_edition.jpg
---

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## [What Exactly Is Young Adult Literature? A Brief History](https://blog.bookstellyouwhy.com/what-exactly-is-young-adult-literature-a-brief-history)

By [Katie Behrens](https://blog.bookstellyouwhy.com/author/katie-behrens).  Mar 10, 2017. 9:00 AM.

Topics: [Children's Books](https://blog.bookstellyouwhy.com/topic/childrens-books), [Book History](https://blog.bookstellyouwhy.com/topic/book-history)

If you ask a book lover what they read during their young, formative years, the conversation will inevitably turn to how “we didn’t have books like *The Hunger Games* when I was growing up.” And it’s true: young adult literature as a genre only began to take root in the 1970s and ‘80s, but boy, has it ever gone through a growth spurt since then. Books for teens are dominating book sales and box offices these days. Where did this phenomenon begin?

[![The_outsiders_1967_first_edition](https://blog.bookstellyouwhy.com/hs-fs/hubfs/The_outsiders_1967_first_edition.jpg?width=208&name=The_outsiders_1967_first_edition.jpg)](https://www.bookstellyouwhy.com/searchResults.php?category_id=1044&action=browse&orderBy=relevance)We can thank (or blame) librarians for the term “[young adult](https://www.bookstellyouwhy.com/searchResults.php?category_id=1044&action=browse&orderBy=relevance)” as applied to teenagers 12-18 years old. The Young Adult Library Services Association was created in 1957 (under a slightly different title) during a major reorganization within the American Library Association. So the teens were being served at their libraries, but they didn’t exactly have their own books. Apart from a few exceptions like [J.D. Salinger](https://blog.bookstellyouwhy.com/bid/230022/JD-Salinger-s-Place-in-Modern-Literature)’s *The Catcher in the Rye* (1951), young people in their adolescence had to jump straight to books written for adults.

S.E. Hinton’s *The Outsiders* came out in 1967, and publishers began waking up to the untapped teenage audience. Hinton’s book typified what publishers were looking for in YA: straight talk about the challenges that teens face, and high emotional stakes with high emotional payouts. It helped that Hinton was herself a [teenager](https://blog.bookstellyouwhy.com/eight-authors-who-were-famous-before-thirty) (18 years old) when it was published.

[![AreYouThereGod](https://blog.bookstellyouwhy.com/hubfs/AreYouThereGod.jpg)](https://www.bookstellyouwhy.com/searchResults.php?category_id=1044&action=browse&orderBy=relevance)And then there’s Judy Blume. This female powerhouse of an author blew the lid off of [controversial](https://blog.bookstellyouwhy.com/bid/230030/Banned-Books-that-Revolutionized-Literature) topics—racism, menstruation, teen sex, divorce, masturbation—in her books for teens. Blume didn’t sugar coat the unsavory details of growing up, and it turned out that’s exactly what teenagers were looking for. *Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret* was published in 1970, and it was quickly followed by the anonymously authored *Go Ask Alice*, which dealt with teen drug addiction. The “Golden Age of YA” was well under way.

The trend continued into the 1980s, when episodic series books like *Sweet Valley High* and *The Babysitter’s Club* reigned supreme. It wasn’t just a girl’s club, though; while young women comprised a majority of the YA reading audience, young men had authors like Robert Cormier (*The Chocolate War*, 1974) and Walter Dean Myers.

[![The_Giver](https://blog.bookstellyouwhy.com/hs-fs/hubfs/The_Giver.jpg?width=231&name=The_Giver.jpg)](https://www.bookstellyouwhy.com/searchResults.php?category_id=1044&action=browse&orderBy=relevance)By the late ‘80s, the market was saturated with “issue” books that usually ended in an overly moralistic outcome (the girl who has sex on her prom night gets into a car crash, for example). YA literature went through a bit of a slump in the ‘90s (there were statistically fewer people aged 12-18 during that decade), but it still brought us some classics that teens are still reading today. R.L. Stine’s *Goosebumps* series reignited YA [horror](https://blog.bookstellyouwhy.com/-a-brief-history-of-horror-literature), Lois Lowry’s *The Giver* gave us a taste of dystopian futures, and Tamora Pierce and Garth Nix brought young readers to [fantasy](https://blog.bookstellyouwhy.com/on-beyond-tolkien-a-brief-survey-of-modern-fantasy).

Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, YA literature returned in the new millennium even better than before thanks to—you guessed it—[Harry Potter](https://www.bookstellyouwhy.com/searchResults.php?category_id=869&action=browse&orderBy=saleprice2). J.K. Rowling’s teenage readers needed other things to read, and publishers were happy to provide.

[![First_Part_Last](https://blog.bookstellyouwhy.com/hs-fs/hubfs/First_Part_Last.jpg?width=194&name=First_Part_Last.jpg)](https://www.bookstellyouwhy.com/searchResults.php?category_id=1044&action=browse&orderBy=relevance)Writers like Sarah Dessen, Stephen Chbosky, Laurie Halse Anderson, and Meg Cabot were the vanguard, but many, many others were to follow during the 2000s. Stephenie Meyer’s *Twilight* series in 2005 began a mini-genre of paranormal romance novels, and Suzanne Collins kicked off the dystopian wave we’re still riding today.

Current trends in YA literature favor stand-alone novels, greater [diversity](https://blog.bookstellyouwhy.com/ten-things-you-didnt-know-about-sherman-alexie) of authors and characters across racial, ethnic, and sexual identities, and the burgeoning New Adult genre for young people in their 20s. While [some critics try to shame adults for reading YA books](https://blog.bookstellyouwhy.com/why-adults-shouldnt-be-embarrassed-to-read-ya-literature), it reflects a blindness and ignorance of the great writing and storytelling to be found here. Isn’t it time to try a little YA yourself?

[![Browse More Young Adult Fiction](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/237126/2d9fa1f7-b5c9-4da9-8723-06b782714a4b.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/237126/2d9fa1f7-b5c9-4da9-8723-06b782714a4b)

 

![](https://blog.bookstellyouwhy.com/hs-fs/hub/237126/file-987936873.jpg?width=80&name=file-987936873.jpg) 

[Katie Behrens](https://blog.bookstellyouwhy.com/author/katie-behrens)

Avid consumer of books, media, and general nerdery. Ready to dig deep into a story and match the right books with the right readers.

 

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