New Adult helps solve the problem of explicit content in Young Adult.
Young Adult has been a staple in the book community for its diverse nature and coming-of-age stories; however, the genre has faced controversy because of the mature content in these books that have been targeted towards minors.
Young Adult literature (YA) is targeted toward the ages of 12 to 18, which is a varied age range where in a year a person can grow drastically. The diverse age range causes a problem of what content is appropriate for each age.
An 18-year-old has more maturity and a need for a larger scope of material, that 12-year-olds do not have yet.
The reason why there needs to be a difference in the content for YA is because of the effect it has had on minors by exposing them to content that they are not ready for because of their lack of maturity to understand or comprehend the hidden and explicit nuance of mature content.
The explicit content includes violence, drugs, and smut, which, when a reader does not have a mature mindset, can cause idealization of these topics because of the way they are presented to their impressionable minds.
Minors are finding that violence, taking drugs, or partaking in smut, is normal and fun and growing up faster with a warped mindset because they’re exposed to mature content.
However, YA books are about coming of age and growing up and one of those aspects is becoming an adult and learning about the world which means they need to be exposed to topics considered to be adult content. That’s where New Adult comes in.
New Adult (NA) has characters and a writing style that YA has while incorporating explicit content. In the book A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas, the main character is 17 and the writing style is similar to Young Adult but has explicit content.
However, like most of Sarah J. Maas‘s books, A Court of Thorns and Roses was originally classified as YA upon its release but has since been reclassified as Adult and the covers changed to fit its new niche.
But books like A Court of Thorns and Roses might seem immature in the Adult category because of the way they are written and the characters who are more similar to the YA audience.
New Adult would utilize a mix of Adults and YA to introduce rising adults to new topics that they were not ready for before but can comprehend the nuances while still having relatable characters.
Another huge issue with YA has been its covers because of their cartoon-like drawings and bright colors, they seem harmless and child-like but have much more adult-like content, like Icebreaker by Hanna Grace.
New Adult has the same writing style as YA with characters of similar age, to allow the older half of teenagers to still enjoy the classic YA feel, while incorporating more mature topics to expand their minds.
Meanwhile, YA would remain the same excluding explicit content so that the younger half of the Young Adult spectrum would still read age-appropriate books without content that they are not ready for.
