Like most children of the ‘90s, I grew up with Harry Potter. Alongside the students of Hogwarts I learned the lesson of doing what is right amidst a world doing everything it can to convince you that yours is a lost cause. We read about the trials Harry faced that at times led him toward depressive states as seen in “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” or “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.” We grew up with a series that taught life lessons so humbly we did not realize Hogwarts was our classroom as well, until we were older.

More Than an Imaginary World

On some level of consciousness, we became prone to expect a book to give us more than an imaginary world to which we could escape. Literature had become the medium by which we found our unspoken fears and desires clearly laid out for us — lived out through the lives of the characters we read.

The authors of young adult literature perpetuated this expectation by writing stories that did anything but shy away from the ugly side of life. We learned the lessons, next we needed to know we were not alone in the pain and heartache we would experience in our formidable teen years.

Real and Valuable

When people discover my ambition to become an author, the question afterward is always the same and so is the answer – what type of books do I want to write? I want to write books like John Green’s and do so with a Christian perspective. Green’s novels deal with cancer, love, death, mental illnesses and the existential crisis teens face at one point or another. My desire is to write a story that captures the instability of life while also providing my reader with the light of the gospel. Like Green, I want to affirm, not trivialize the feelings of those who read YA literature.

Stephen Chbosky’s novel “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” which is written in journal entry format, confronts depression head-on and the effects it has on all those connected to it. The novel’s portrayal of adolescent sexual abuse is raw and empathetic, allowing any reader who has experienced such trauma to silently and confidentially be told “you are not alone in your pain.” Green’s novel “The Fault in Our Stars” captures the thrill of your first love as well as the heartache of losing someone you shared “a small infinity” with. Each novel is merely a snapshot of the work YA literature does in the lives of its readers. While the world may tell them it will all be okay in a few years, authors tell young adults everything they are living is real and valuable.

Validating

When told the emotions and heartaches they face are simply part of their stage of life, young adults might as well be told what they are experiencing is not valid and does not measure up in comparison to the issues they will face when they are older. Where adult figures fail, YA literature excels by creating stories validating everything about the years that ultimately shape who we will become.