Please don't sing the obvious song

There's no denying the growing popularity of the YA genre. Teens and tweens are becoming a more profitable demographic and more and more genre expansion is introduced into the category every year.

There's no denying how YA has shaped culture, from Tolkein to The Giver to Hunger Games. People of all ages flock to them, be it for romance, action, themes, actors, storytelling, or notsalgia.

Now, I'm not saying Ya is bad, but I am going to say somewhere it went wrong. I found myself baffled by what the YA supergenre had done to our young girls. Again, I mus stress that I do not go looking for problems. It comes to me and stamps it foot when I voice the flaw politely to others. A young girl was hoping to see her story see popularity like many other YA titles and her description was that a a girl was afraid for her life that the hottest guy in the school found out a secret about her. I asked if it was her intention that the main character would overcome the superficiality of thinking school rumors and attractiveness were so important. The immediate response was 'It's not superficial! This stuff IS life or death important!'

There is nothing wrong with romance, nor on making money off of fake romance (or real romance, so long as all parties are okay with that). But why teach one gender than it's all that matters? I'm not saying we should teach children about things like taxes and CD ladders, but if there is far more than romance and most of it is more important for boys, why not teach that to girls too? Why is there still such a wide chasm in the 21^st century?

As shown above by the crazy reply, children are easily influenced by literature these days, despite what misguided anti-video game zealots might tell you. Telling girls romance is wrong or bad or not worth pursuing can be just as damaging as telling them it's all that matters in life and you're not worth anything as a human being without it. Tell them that anyone who does decide to pursue love is a sellout to their gender and is weak and stupid is awful as well.

There is a third option, and it makes compromise both harder and stupider (not a word, I know). When one extreme says they are the middle ground, the problems they cause become harder and harder to fix. It's possible to help a child grow up and see that there is more to romance or that being attracted to another in a way that means more than wanting to get into their pants isn't a bad thing. But when you tell everyone that the entire world is a Lifetime movie or unrequited love is so bad only suicide can fix it and then claim you're not an extreme, things seem even more complicated for children, girls and boys alike.

There is an answer, and it's an easy one. It's just not one anyone ever thought to try until early in 2014 and many have perverted the message. But children get it, so there's probably hope. Just tell them both choices are okay, but nothing to be killed over because you and other support them even if things don't turn out perfect.
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