Is Teen Fiction Getting Too Racy?

Many parents and the media are criticizing the fiction that young teen girls are reading these days. But it seems to be the same battle cry that has been called during every decade of teen fiction.

"Sybil Davidson has a genius I.Q. and has been laid by at least six different guys." - from the book, "Forever" written by Judy Blume.

Some of you may remember that book with a giggle. I was in fifth grade in 1979 when all of us girls were passing the rag-torn paperback around and reading it beyond our mother's peering eyes. Well, at least until one mother discovered it and took it away from us. Judy Blume was and still is a top author of young adult fiction. Five of her books are still on the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Book list, even decades after their original release.

I can speak for myself and my girlfriends; we couldn't have made it through puberty without Blume's help. And today's young girls aren't much different than we were. The popular Gossip Girl books written by Cecily von Ziegesar are being read in the same relentless way we read Blume.

The Gossip Girl series has inspired many other series with the same appeal. The books feature girls with bottomless bank accounts, very little parent supervision, no rules and basically no limits. Even television shows such as "The O.C." have cashed in on the popularity.

Yes these books of today are very similar to those I read; and yes they are racy. The books are full of sex, drugs and fashion trends. Kids like them because they offer a fun look into a posh world that's as dangerous as it is dazzling. Sure, the books contain scandals, guilty pleasures, and vicarious thrills; but what newspaper or television show doesn't as well?

Looking back at "shocking" books: there was "The Outsiders" by S. E. Hinton in the sixties, Judy Blume for us in the seventies and V.C. Andrews "Flowers in the Attic" in the eighties; even those paperbacks in the "Sweet Valley High" series pushed the tolerance level a few times. The paperback horrors of the nineties written by R.L. Stine and Christopher Pike were questioned for their graphics. Today's' young adult literature have attracted attention for their explicitness and mature themes but they really aren't as bad as what the media make them out to be.

The books of the past and today may be racy, but that is all they are... racy. Teen fiction should not be generalized by the media as nothing more than "racy".

Racy or not, these books have appealed to the teen-adult crossover. More than ever the line between these two audiences are blurred. There is more diversity in the young adult market in this decade and is now accepted as its own genre. The teen market is seeing a number of strong trends and kids are buying more books than ever! Kids are reading! What's the problem?