Stories I Want More Of

Hello lovelies! I thought today I would talk about stories I want more of. YA tends to pick a trend and just stick with it for ages. Many of the books I read feel redundant and over done. And then other topics are never broached.They’re left disregarded and abandoned. But we are all different people and needs our stories told. That’s why there’s such a fight for diversity right now among the book community. We want to see all people being represented. Here are three stories I think we need an influx of.

1. Disabilities and Mental Illness stories within Non-Contemporary genres. There are quite a few mental health books coming out this year. Too bad almost all of them are YA contemporary. Or worse contemporary romance. (Romance does NOT solve your illness people.) I mean yes, I want to see myself in these genres. But beyond that, just think logically. Just because you made up this fun little world for our characters to tramp around in doesn’t mean it’s devoid of physical ailments! Like where did they go? Why doesn’t that person who’s family was annihilated have PTSD? Why doesn’t the exhaustively excited girl who then turns dangerously depressed have Bi Polar? Why does all of your population have perfectly working bodies? No one has autism and now struggles to connect to other human beings?  I’m just saying, these things don’t just go away because we are in a fantasy setting. You can’t just be like “Tra La La La La, my world has magic and assassins and WAR but NO deaf or blind people.” I mean get real.
2. Friendship stories with no romance! I understand that especially within YA, romance sells. But seriously do we have to tank all the friendships in the process? Why are these girls being petty and back-stabbing each other. Yes it’s high school but dude, I had some close female friends in high school. Typically the girls that “get along better with guys” in YA also hate on the other groups. Making them come off as having an inferiority complex. And that’s just not right. You can be better friends with males and still not be rude and inappropriate towards the female population. We had boyfriends but more importantly we had each other. We should be building friendships up not tearing them down. We need more books like Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants that celebrates female friendships and shows teens what healthy friendship looks like.
3.  College aged coming of age stories. YA is known for their coming of age stories. Books about the realizations we make as we hit that point of young adulthood where we start to grow up a bit. Here’s the thing though. YA includes protagonists up to 19. Cool, I get it. Then the adult genre begins. But most adult books are about the struggles with marriage and kids. Or they’re about dealing with growing older and family drama. What happened to that whole chunk of life in between? I mean, I come from a small town and for a lot of my fellow graduates, there was no in between. But for the majority of people  there is this whole time of life where we either enter the work force, go exploring life, or begin the adventures of college. Where are the college coming of age stories? (There are a few but not many) For most people this is the first time they’ve ever lived on their own. You never realize how much you are dependent on your family until you have to take complete care of yourself physically, emotionally, and mentally. I want stories where kids have to learn responsibility because they started a job at 20 to pay bills but they hate it and don’t know what to do next. This is real life! Where are the stories about when you graduate college and have no job, no money, no boyfriend, and end up crying while eating Ramon noodles for the 5th night in a row. I understand that in the beginning New Adult tried to bridge that gap but let’s be honest. New adult has become a romance genre, just with college aged kids. No I want regular old coming of age stories with less focus on the romance and more on how you deal with life at this age.

 

These are just a few of the stories I think we need written. Let me know if you agree with any of these or if there are other stories you want to hear. Have a wonderful day!