Are teenagers - and their brains - different?

by Teri Terry

For a long time it was thought that most brain development takes place in the early years; that a teen essentially has an adult brain. 
But then why do they think and act so differently? 
For example, why do they - comparatively speaking - have poorer impulse control, take more risks in the presence of their peers, and generally find their parents excruciatingly embarrassing to be around? Why won't they just grow up?
Is it a societal thing - is it our fault - is it theirs?

Brainstorm is a play created by Islington Community Theatre (now called Company 3) and cognitive neuroscientist Sarah-Jayne Blakemore:

You say to me...
Your brain is broken. It's like an adult's brain that doesn't work properly.

Brainstorm, companythree.co.uk

Whether you are a teen, write for teens, live with a few or work with them by the dozen, watch this excerpt: it is powerful.

Brainstorm from Mattia Pagura on Vimeo.

When I started writing for teens years ago, it wasn't long after the time that YA fiction was becoming a thing. 

Around the same time I remember coming across this argument, one I've heard many times since:

No matter what you call them - teenagers, young adults or adolescents - the whole youth culture is a recent creation of an affluent west. YA fiction grew out of this: it is a market artificially created by publishing companies to make money.

So, are they real or did we make them up? 
Whatever label you want to use, are teenagers distinctly different from children and adults, or are they actually a recent invention? 
And why does it seem so socially acceptable to mock teens and the ways they are different, their likes and dislikes? 

I'm all too familiar with how dismissive people often are of books written for teens and those who write them, and the view that readers should go from children's stories straight to adult classics with no stops between; that giving them access to teen fiction they enjoy allows them to be lazy and unchallenged.

I went to a talk by award-winning cognitive neuroscientist Sarah-Jayne Blakemore at New Scientist Live last weekend: The Secret Life of the Teenage Brain.

She knows what she's talking about. This is her bio, from the New Scientist Live website: 

Sarah-Jayne Blakemore is Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at University

College London, Deputy Director of the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Editor-in-Chief of the journal Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience and a member of the Royal Society Public Engagement Committee. She has won multiple major awards for her research, including the British Psychological Society Spearman Medal 2006, the Turin Young Mind & Brain Prize 2013, the Royal Society Rosalind Franklin Award 2013 and the Klaus J. Jacobs Research Prize 2015. She was one of only four scientists on the Sunday Times 100 Makers of the 21st Century in 2014.

I took LOADS of notes to do this blog, and then I found this: a TED talk! 
Well, Sarah-Jayne says it much better than I can, so here you go: 

So, there you have it. 

Teenagers ARE different; their brains are undergoing important work at making them who they are. This is the case across cultures; across centuries; even species. 

So, cut them some slack. 

And I'll keep writing, and know this: 

If I write a book that a teen connects with, one that makes them understand themselves or other people better, one that makes them feel that if a character their age can do something amazing, maybe they can, too - or even if it is just pure escapism from a difficult day - I know I've done something important.

Congratulations to Patrick Ness and Jim Kay

By Candy Gourlay

My favourite image from this amazing novel.

A Monster Calls combines an extraordinary idea, a powerful story, and truly terrific illustration to create a winner. When I saw it listed for both the Carnegie AND the Greenaway, it obviously deserved both prizes and I wondered how CILIP where going to deal with it. Well they have - it's a double win for the book, and a second Carnegie in a row for Patrick. Patrick greeted the news with genuine disbelief.

Jealous? Well maybe I immediately had thoughts of putting illustration into my own forthcoming novel. But no other book so deserves both prizes. Congratulations, you two. I love A Monster Calls and weirdly feel like it was ME the reader who won! Additional bittersweet celebrations that yet again the wonderful Siobhan Dowd's voice sends echoes to us from the beyond.  And congratulations to Walker's Denise Johnson Burt, the editor who wouldn't let a good story go to waste.

To celebrate, here is some footage of Patrick Ness's recent appearance at the London Book Fair - I've been holding onto it for a future discussion of Young Adult writing. But there's no time like the present! You can also read this brilliant Guardian article on how they made the book.

Is Young Adult fiction safe for young adults to read? Discussing darkness in teen fiction

By Jackie Marchant
Guest Blogger

‘Contemporary fiction for teens is rife with explicit abuse, violence and depravity’ Discuss.

Is it? Does it matter? Should we write this stuff? Should we rinse our pens out with soap and water and slap ourselves on the wrists for putting such depraved thoughts on paper?

I went to a recent CBC  meeting, where the recent outpourings from Wall Street columnist Meghan Cox Gurdon were discussed.

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A controversial blog post Darkness Too Visible by Megan Cox Gordon recently sparked outrage from the most eminent echelons of the YA writing community. She described Young Adult fiction as "like a hall of fun-house mirrors, constantly reflecting back hideously distorted portrayals of what life is".  Among teen books she mentioned were:  Go Ask Alice - drug addiction, rape, overdose; I Am the Cheese by Robert Cormier - murder; Rage by Jackie Morse Kessler - self-injury; The Marbury Lens by Andrew Smith - a boy is drugged and raped.

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The panelists included Joy Court, past chair of CILIP  and co-ordinator of Carnegie and Kate Greenaway awards; Bali Rai, a writer of contemporary fiction that may be described as an example of the above (but who has not as far as I know ever rinsed his pen out with soap and water); Julie Randle of Scholastic Book Clubs, who is responsible for direct selling of books to children in schools and Shannon Park, executive editor of fiction at Puffin.

The room was filled with publishers, writers, teachers, librarians and anyone with a passion for children’s books.

 It was billed as a ‘debate’, but although the discussion was lively at times, it wasn’t really a debate - because everyone agreed that the books Meghan Cox Gurdon was so concerned about deserve their place on the shelves of our bookshops and libraries.

The closest we had to disagreement was a suggestion that YA books should not be labelled as children’s books.

 

Parodies of teenagers by British comedians. Vicky Pollard (left) the obese juvenile delinquent motormouth, and (right) Kevin the Teenager, rude and sex obsessed

I think this is a valid point - there are content issues with YA books, which may well be inappropriate for younger readers. But YA books do carry warnings that they are not suitable for younger readers and their covers should reflect the age of the reader they are aimed at.

SOME LINKS TO THE BUZZ SURROUNDING YA

YA authors Katie Crouch and Gradie Hendrix write that the 'insane pace' of YA fiction is affecting quality

YA writer Tahere Mafi responds in hilarious fashion

Wall Street Journal publishes Gurdon's piece Darkness Too Visible

Provoking strong responses from YA literati Judy Blume, Neil Gaiman, Libba Bray and Sherman Alexie.

Maureen Johnson starts up a Twitter hashtag YAsaves which immediately goes viral.

Gurdon defends her essay in another Wall Street Journal piece.

Loretta Nyham warns in International Business Times that if YA Saves, there's a danger of equating the genre with self-help ... which isn't literature

Scott Westerfeld calls on teens to help their parents understand YA fiction

Here are the interesting points raised at the CBC debate:

• Young adult books differ from adult books only in the age of their protagonists. That means YA books have main characters their readers can relate to.

• Young adults should have the same freedom to choose what they read as adults. They will have access to adult books and will read them.

• It is not in the interests of publishers to take on books that won’t sell. If the teens are buying them, they will publish them.

Bali Rai is the author of
Killing Honour and (un)Arranged Marriage

• Some published and highly acclaimed authors were brought up in deprived inner city areas. They know what they are writing about and they do it well.

• There are a lot of ‘paranormal mums’ out there - a whole market of mums who can’t get enough of teen vampire books.

• Publishers do have a sense of responsibility. Violence must have consequences, sex must be in context, swearing must be in character and filling a book with violence and depravity for its own sake will never work. The most important thing is that the writing must be strong and engaging. (Hmm, wonder whether you’ve heard that before?)

• Reading is SAFE. Young adults can read about the real world and all its issues without going there.

• Reading violence does not make young adults violent, any more than reading crime turns adults into murderers.

Bali Rai in correspondence with Notes from the Slushpile had this to say:

I feel that reading is often under attack from some quarters and as such we should take every opportunity to defend books, the importance of reading for pleasure, and our right, as authors, to write challenging and boundary-breaking fiction without being vilified as a bunch of evil misery-pushers. Reflecting REAL teenage experiences is far too important to leave it to a morally righteous minority who forget that the 1950's and the rise of the teenager ever happened. Left to their own devices such people would have sixteen year olds reading the Famous Five and wearing Hush Puppies!

The one issue that cropped up over and over was quality of writing. That is what sells books and that is what us writers are aiming for.

So - where does all this leave us, the humble writer?

 The answer is simple - exactly where you were before.

 Write what matters. Write from the heart.

 And if you feel the need to write about the real world where teenagers meet abuse, violence and depravity, then feel free to write about it. As long as your writing is strong and engaging, that is what really matters.

Jackie Marchant writes humorous fiction for boys 8+, as well as YA fantasy. Her story Picture This was published in Scholastic's Wow! 366 - a collection of stories of just 366 words each.

Jackie lives in North West London with her husband, two teenagers, and a her ex-trainee guide dog. Jackie has helped train three guide dog puppies and now looks after guide dogs while their owners are away. She spends a lot of time walking in the woods, thinking about what to write and bumping her head on low branches.

Jackie is represented by Alice Williams at David Higham Associates. Photo: Rosie Marchant

Open Book and Mariella Frostrup Interview YA authors

by Teri Terry

Is a bit of your brain still a teenager? If so, YA may be just the thing…

I’d like to think that one day, Mariella Frostrup might interview me on my latest best seller.
There is one flaw with this, though: she is just way too scary. That could turn from dream to nightmare in seconds.
She’d probably have me quivering in the corner with insightful questions, spot every flaw in my writing from beginning to end, and make me realize that I’m just playing at this writing malarkey and should go home and knit.
And she would do it nicely, too.

Mariella Frostrup: Book Goddess

On 21 November, Mariella presented a special edition of Open Book on BBC radio 4, exploring the recent boom in fiction for young adults. She spoke to authors Marcus Sedgwick, Malorie Blackman and Gemma Malley.
How could I resist, with the divine Mr M involved?

The Divine Mr M (Marcus Sedgwick)

And she didn’t shy away from the big questions. Is the YA boom a construction of the publishing industry, or does it fill a needed gap? In years past, children went straight from reading children’s to adult books: did stretching in our formative years do previous generations any harm?

Mariella began by putting them in the spotlight: what did they read as teens?

Mariella started them off: she went to Georgette Heyer and DH Lawrence. Marlorie Blackman impressed with Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, and Rebecca. Oh, and Jacqueline Susann. Marcus Sedgewick admitted he read good, and bad: lots of science fiction and fantasy – just like me! – though no names admitted to, except that Merlin Peak was a big thing that grabbed him at age 14 or 15. Gemma Malley read Judy Blume, Virginia Andrews and… Dostoevsky. Really?!

Is one of the hallmarks of teen fiction that the central protagonist is almost always a teenager themselves?

Marcus noted this isn’t essential, though Malorie said it is easier for readers to empathize and identify with protagonists of similar age. She writes for the teenager inside herself: books she would have loved to read at that age. Gemma, on the other hand, didn’t set out to write a YA book; her protagonist was a teenager as this was needed for her story.

An extract from Boys Don’t Cry, Marlorie’s latest, was read. This novel tackles issues of teenage pregnancy, homosexuality and attempted suicide. How is responsibility to young readers balanced with responsibility as a story teller?

Malorie noted endings in her books may not be happy, but they are hopeful; and teens don’t always believe there is a happy ending. In writing this particular book she set out to give teenage dads a say.

Malorie Blackman

Is it a hallmark of YA that endings aren’t neat and happily ever after, but are often bleak or enigmatic?

Gemma noted that teens are in transition from the black and white world of the child, to an adult shades-of-grey world; they are starting to realize their parents aren’t necessarily always right, and that they have to think things through for themselves.

Marcus says he tries to do two things: to not be boring, and – like Gemma – to suggest that life is not black and white.

Mariella noted that girls read more than boys: does Malorie’s Noughts and Crosses appeal to black boys?

Malorie hopes so. She said when she was growing up, books did not feature black characters, and that fiction engenders empathy, and gives an emotional vocabulary.

And now for the big issue: YA is the space between children’s and adult books. Was it created by a marketing push? Does YA really exist?

Marcus mentioned Catcher in the Rye, and that SF and Fantasy were there for YA readers: YA has always existed, but it is now a recognized genre that is published into by publishers. Gemma agreed there have always been books that tap into teens.

BUT are we holding kids back by the idea of teen books instead of going straight to adult books?

Malorie noted that some teens get disaffected by reading adult books, and Marcus that the idea that teens should always be stretched to the limit of their reading ability is false. We don’t do that as adults: we might want to read a trashy novel on holiday. He said ‘why not just feel free to read what you want to read at any time.’ Brilliant advice.

Mariella notes that Marcus’s White Crow doesn’t shy away from posing difficult questions about life after death: would have been different if written for adults?

Marcus said probably not, though noted publishing decisions affect editing, and there is a responsibility to have some notion of hope and optimism. But more to have an engaging story.

Can you tackle more when writing for children than adults?

Gemma said yes: teens can accept all sorts of things, and don’t have the same parameters. Marcus said it is exciting writing for children as you can write about anything; with adults, you are constrained by genre, trends, and what is and isn’t acceptable.

Mariella discussed Gemma’s dystopian world in The Declaration, in which she critiques the very premise of children.

Gemma was interested in developments in science: do we want to live forever? If so, we can’t have children. Using a future setting gives more freedom in the plot as can expand reality, and, no research is necessary.

Mariella quoted Nicholas Tuckers’ Rough Guide to Books for Teenagers, where he criticizes upping the tragedy in books for teens.

Malorie noted her books have both humour and angst. Marcus said Tucker missed the point. There are two types of books: good, and bad. And those about issues with a capital ‘I’ can do it badly, or well; you shouldn’t sweep away the whole genre or approach.

Why write YA?

Marcus said honest children’s writers all admit, there is a bit of their brain that is still a teenager.

Finally: what are the themes of the future in YA? Are there different genres within?

Marcus says publishers hate the label SF; Malorie notes that if you want to write innovative fiction, YA is the place to be; and Gemma that YA doesn’t seem to be subdivided too much – there is a huge amount of freedom.

My Conclusions?

Since I am mentally 14, still trying to work out shades of grey, don’t like doing research and am writing an innovative dystopia set in the future without calling it SF… I guess I’m in the right place.

Sherman Alexie on The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian and Why YA is So Cool

I just finished writing my chapter for the day and it's total rubbish but at least I've now hit 22,412 words.

That's good right? At least I've laid the bones down and tomorrow I can go over it again with humour and craft and care. So in anticipation, I try to prime my brain with something inspiring.

I thought, what about reading a few chapters from Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian? Then I thought, Sherman Alexie, what kind of name is that? Is he really Indian? So I thought, surely, there's a video of Sherman Alexie on YouTube. I wanna see if he's really an Indian.

And guess what, he really is. But the other thing he turns out to be is really funny. You've just got to watch him do this HILARIOUS reading of one of the funniest moments in the book. The Q&A afterwards is cool too. About the true stories behind the book, the differences between his adult and Young Adult writing and also his remarks on how supportive the YA reader/writer community is - which makes me smug because that is exactly the world I want to be in.

If you can't see the video click here to view it on YouTube

Technology: where I draw the line

I'm always harping on about how we do teenagers down about their use of technology and I really do believe they deserve our respect and that we writers should rise to the challenge of their world.

But this is ridiculous.

With thanks to my cousin Cornelio, who forwarded the picture.

Teens Do Read - Take That, Anti-Hoody People!

As the mother of two hoodies, I take exception to frequent put-downs of teenagers - the sort that reduce their complexity to 'feral thugs who live on advertising jingles and drugs'.

So you can imagine my urge to say I TOLD YEW SO when Newsweek declared that teen writing is the 'one bright spot' in a flat children's publishing market.

Contrary to the depressing proclamations that American teens aren't reading, the surprising truth is they are reading novels in unprecedented numbers. Young-adult fiction (ages 12-18) is enjoying a bona fide boom with sales up more than 25 percent in the past few years, according to a Children's Book Council sales survey. Virtually every major publishing house now has a teen imprint, many bookstores and libraries have created teen reading groups and an infusion of talented new authors has energized the genre.

Libraries and booksellers are taking teenage books out of the kiddy section and putting them in their own spaces.

YA Author (and executive editorial director of Scholastic Inc) David Leviathan goes so far as to call it a 'second golden age'. This, he says, is the "most exciting time for young-adult literature since the late 1960s and 1970s when 'The Chocolate War' [by Robert Cormier] and 'Forever' [by Judy Blume] were published."

Wehey!

Leviathan and others point to the increased sophistication and emotional maturity of teenagers as well as the fact that:

... young-adult books are simply better and more diverse than ever, and readers are responding.

I guess it's a double edged sword.

On the one hand, the books are better, the kids are reading more. On the other hand, kids are turning to books partly to escape the fact that contemporary teenage life is more challenging and more stressful.

What can we do?

Write better. Write well. They so deserve it.

(Important Question: Will the good news trickle across the Atlantic to the UK?)

Thanks to Achockablog for the heads-up.

Do teens really prefer their books without eyeballs?

Over at the blog of Justine Larbalastier (Magic or Madness), the cover of her much awaited new YA book How to Ditch Your Fairy has just been posted.

It kind of reminds me of the cover of Screwed, the new book by Joanna Kenrick, who I met when I spoke to the Scattered Authors Society:

In fact it reminded me of an army of YA novels (interestingly, they all seem to target a girl readership):

Justine's fans knowledgeably discussed this 'eyeless' phenomenon in YA books:

Elodie: What is with that “girl with the eyes cut off” thing being so popular on covers?

Karen: I’ve been told the reason for truncating the face on book covers is that if the eyes are shown, the story seems to be about that person on the cover, whereas if they’re not shown, the reader can more easily imagine herself in that person’s position. It sounds silly, but I think there’s probably some truth to it.

Gabrielle: Om em gee, you caught Maureen’s eye-missing curse! I do love it though, especially how she flicks the fairy. Totally suits the title. Now I wanna read!

Faith: Oh no ...Your publisher got bit by the eyeless girl bug. WHY? I’m still psyched about the book… but WHY, COVER ARTIST? WHY? THE EYELESS GIRL TREND MUST STOP! *breathes* ...

Here is Justine's reply:

As for the eyeless thing. As some of you know I’m not a fan . . . In comment no. 10 above Karen explains that one of the main reasons for the eyeless covers is that “if the eyes are shown, the story seems to be about that person on the cover, whereas if they’re not shown, the reader can more easily imagine herself in that person’s position.”

Also these covers sell. The identification thing may be why. Gazillions of teenage girls have responded positively to them over and over again. Indeed, Maureen and Diana’s books sell very nicely, thank you very much.

Ultimately, the cover is about selling the book. Hence the lack of eyes.

I think looking at these books each on their own, they are very attractive covers. But together on a shelf, they kinda look the same to me.

These are all cool writers I enjoy reading. Maybe they deserve more stand-out covers, huh, publishers?

Meanwhile, over at the Booksquare blog, there is teeth gnashing over romance book covers. Hmm. Covers seem to be topic of the week.

YA Readers Are So Worth Writing For

I once attended a talk by Meg Rosoff (How I Live Now) at which a middle aged lady raised her hand and expressed surprise that Rosoff was wasting her time writing for younger people – at least, that was the gist of what I remember, it was a while ago now.

Now comes the hoo ha over this New York Times review by Dave Itzkoff.

To paraphrase Itzkoff’s rather wordy controversial statement: Itzkoff declared that there was “no self-respect”, no “artistic satisfaction” or “dignity” in writing for younger readers. Here is what he said in full:

As someone whose subway rides tend to resemble scenes from an “Evil Dead” movie, in which I am Bruce Campbell dodging zombies who have had all traces of their humanity sucked out of them by a sinister book — not the “Necronomicon,” but “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” — I sometimes wonder how any self-respecting author of speculative fiction can find fulfillment in writing novels for young readers. I suppose J. K. Rowling could give me 1.12 billion reasons in favor of it: get your formula just right and you can enjoy worldwide sales, film and television options, vibrating-toy-broom licensing fees, Chinese-language bootlegs of your work, a kind of limited immortality (L. Frank Baum who?) and — finally — genuine grown-up readers. But where’s the artistic satisfaction? Where’s the dignity?

I had to read it twice because having declared YA an undeserving audience, Itzkoff proceeded to lavish praise on two YA books (Un Lun Dun by China Miéville and Interworld by Neil Gaiman and Michael Reeves).

Itzkoff was impressed that the authors didn’t “sugar-coat” their stories for their young readers. Here’s what he says about Un Lun Dun:

When its disheveled characters are sent on exactingly prescribed quests, you can be sure these heroes will cut corners or otherwise fail to fulfill their missions; when prophecies are invoked, they generally don’t come true; and any character complacent enough to believe he or she is some sort of Chosen One is all but guaranteed not to save the day

Well deserved praise for Miéville but hey it’s rather obvious this guy hasn’t read any YA recently if he is so astonished that YA can produce edgy, intelligent novels that twist and turn and surprise.

Author Shannon Hale (her Book of a Thousand Days just won the Cybil for YA fantasy) wrote in her blog:

He must just be speaking outrageously to garner attention--his attitude is so Victorian, so narrow-minded to the point of melodrama. But I have met this attitude so many times--the goal for any real, self-respecting writer must be to have "grown-up readers." Writing for children is less than.

Even Neil Gaiman weighs in:

It's an odd review -- I think that rule number one for book reviewers should probably be Don't Spend The First Paragraph Slagging Off The Genre. Just don't. Don't start a review of romance books by saying that all romance books are rubbish but these are good (or just as bad as the rest). Don't start a review of SF by saying that you hate all off-planet tales or things set in the future and you don't like way SF writers do characters. Don't start a review of a University Adultery novel by explaining that mostly books about English professors having panicky academic sex bore you to tears but. Just don't. Any more than a restaurant reviewer would spend a paragraph explaining that she didn't normally like or eat -- or understand why other people would like or eat -- Chinese food, or French, or barbeque. It just makes people think you're not a very good reviewer.

Me? I write YA because young people delight and surprise and excite and inspire and challenge me – and as Scott Westerfeld said in a recent interview when he was asked, "Were you worried about being pigeonholed by having your novels called Young Adult?”

Young adults are far more universal readers ... politically and all sorts of other ways, kids are more open to things ... they are less narrow.

Scott Westerfeld and Justine Larbalestiere on the YA Fiction Boom

Justine Larbalestiere and Scott Westerfeld appeared on Cult Pop to talk about the why's and wherefore's of Young Audult fiction. Click on the image and go to Cult Pop 13. What Scott said:

Young adults are far more universal readers ... kids are more open to things ... they are less narrow.