1) Young adult fiction is surpassed in every way by the quality of adult fiction.
Like that one…what’s it called? Oh yeah. Fifty Shades of Grey. Quality literature, that.
There’s no way that young adult fiction could EVER be more well-written than adult novels. There’s just no way. EVERY YA book is worse than EVERY adult book out there. If you’re reading books written for teenagers you’re obviously an idiot. Which brings me to my second point.
2) Teenagers are despicable creatures with no intellect.
Everyone knows that teenagers don’t have brains. That definitely explains why we’re the ones reading classics like Pride and Prejudice and Julius Caesar as part of school. Anything fit for teenagers cannot be intellectual/well-written because who would bother? They’re TEENAGERS. Teenagers are all delinquents and crackheads and literature designed for them should not be consumed by Proper Adults.
3) They’re all the same anyway.
ALL YA FICTION is poorly-constructed paranormal fiction with vampires and werewolves and hot guys. Thus, trashy. There is no depth or breadth to the category – it’s all exactly the same level of awful, ungodly rubbish.
4) You should be more concerned with being a Proper Adult.
Because, you know, the concept of adulthood is objective, and concerns Important Things. Nothing in adulthood should be entertaining or fun. Speaking of which.
5) Anything entertaining or fun to read is obviously not quality fiction.
Literature has to be boring for it to be good. Oh well. That means books like One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, The Bell Jar and The Catcher in the Rye must not be quality literature, because I enjoyed them. Damn. I guess I’ll have to find some more boring books.
6) It’s better NOT to read than to read YA.
If you’re not going to read Proper Adult Literature, then just give up and don’t read. Anything’s better than reading YA.
7) And finally, if you’re a condescending, jaded adult with not a single funny bone in your body, you’re probably better off not reading YA anyway.
This is obviously not a serious post.
I’m sure I will continue to read and write YA for a very long time – certainly longer than being an actual teenager (by which time I’ll have to change my blog name – gulp!). I don’t see why people keep attacking YA, but I think as long as you’re reading something, I don’t care. Even if it IS Fifty Shades of Grey.
Do you have any more reasons why people shouldn’t read YA?
The Loony Teen Writer 
I was going to give you a big virtual high five until I saw that you enjoyed “Catcher In The Rye” and I’m sorry but I don’t think we can be friends anymore, this is it, it’s over.
(I’m kidding. But I absolutely loathe that book with a burning passion that rages like a thousand suns powered by all the shredders I want to use to destroy it.)
HAHA. I hated it when I first read it, but it grew on me – and now I really like it. But yeah, I know lots of people who hate it 😛 I JUST THINK HOLDEN HAS A COOL VOICE, OKAY? *cries*
Satire, I like it. Here’s one:
Reading YA books will lower your IQ points by 100.
Definitely. LOL if that were true I wouldn’t have any IQ points left, probably 😛
Oh. My. Giddy. Gosh. This post was absolutely hilarious, Em – I love it! And those GIF’s!! So perfect and spot on. I swear this is what goes through the heads of all those hideously horrible YA-bashers out there.
Thanks for such a entertaining post – it was a fantastic way to start my day. 🙂
THANKS EBONY. Lol, those YA-bashers need some ice cream or something. Or a hug. They must be very sad people.
That was perfect xD And the Catcher in the Rye was fabulous. 😀
I love Catcher in the Rye ❤ one of the very few classics I actually enjoyed!
Same here! 😀
This is such a fantastic post! Kudos! I can’t think of anything to add though… I think you pretty much covered it!
Thank you!! I covered all bases? *adjusts collar* good job, Emily 😛
Baha, you captured the hating YA trend so perfectly here.
To be honest, I am SO TIRED of all these articles saying that YA is for children (I actually read that – CHILDREN), and that they have no meaning etc etc. People love YA, which is why it’s pretty much the most popular genre on the market.
These “adults” (because they’re really acting like adults when they post YA bashing articles) just want the attention of writing a click-bait article, and are probably bemoaning the fact that they didn’t get to grow up with YA, and that they aren’t good enough writers to have a published novel in the YA market.
God I hate that trend. Who decided to rain on YA’s parade? NOT COOL.
Oh my gosh teenagers already have to deal with enough crap, let alone being called children and that we’re stupid. But…well, look at the highest-grossing movies. A LOT are YA. (and hellooooo, Harry Potter??).
Yeah, very adult-like. Ugh. They annoy me so much.
Oh gosh, I can’t stop laughing…
So true though, I feel many people attack young adult, and I even attack myself for liking it saying why can’t I read and enjoy the Odyssey or Robin Hood or the Three Musketeers.
But I feel really proud for YA novels, any literature is literature, and people deserve to write and read it, nobody should be told otherwise.
I do that to myself too – to the point where I’m sometimes embarrassed to buy a YA book with a slightly cliched/teenager-y title. Which is silly, but it happens.
But good on YA – it’s such an awesome category and I’m glad it’s growing.
Fantastic post!! I completely agree- as long as you’re reading something you enjoy, who cares what genre it comes from? I’ve read some pretty amazing YA novels that I think could rival a good portion of adult books out there as far as themes, characters, and originality go. Go teens!! 🙂
Exactly! Hardly anyone reads these days, and reading at ALL is something good. YA can often be as good as or better than adult 🙂
Young adult books TOTALLY don’t sometimes teach life lessons that change young kid’s minds about the world. I mean, YA is only read for fun right? It has nothing to do with the fact that words are books and readers like books, right? Like WOW it mustn’t be a book! It has a teenager as a MC! Horrible, I say. Incorrigible of the publishing world to publish such filth.
Yeah, I laughed so hard reading this post xD I hate how people discriminate against what people read. I mean, no, 50 Shades isn’t exactly…well-written…but if you like, why should you be judged for reading it? 😛 I could go into such a long comment, but I won’t xD For both of our sakes. Great post though! 😀
I know, like YA books are SO un-influential to people. Doesn’t do anything at all. Bloody useless, really. Teenagers. *tuts*
Telling people what they shouldn’t be reading is just silly. Even the whole Twilight-bashing, or recently 50 Shades-bashing is just people who think they have superior reading tastes, calling out others for enjoying themselves. Grr.
Haha, great post 😀 I’m an adult and I have very eclectic reading tastes. I like everything from YA to books to books like 50 Shades of Grey (which I thought was actually pretty decent), and just about everything in between, lol
See, I think that’s great! I have quite a narrow reading taste, lol – but mostly because I don’t get much TIME to read adult books (except for school…)
The gifs though. They were freakishly perfect. SO PERFECT. Of course though, pfft, YA books are not quality literature. They’re absolute rubbish.
*snorts*
I particularly like #3. The gif. Your conclusion. The whole thing.
Oh my gosh some of those GIFs were just JACKPOT FINDS. I saw them and I was like yesss.
Yep, Cait, we all have to stop writing YA as well, because nobody will read it. Everyone hates YA.
This is so good! You’ve summed it up beautifully. 🙂 Great gifs, too!
Thanks!! Haha, the gifs always make the post 😛
On my list of “why everyone loves Emily” this has got to be number one. I love this. To death.
HAHA. I want to see that list. I think I would enjoy it 😛
Ahaha, oh gosh, this is absolutely brilliant. Amazing post, Emily, seriously. AND THE GIFS. PERFECT.
I think I stopped reading those “YA is crap” articles after the first one I saw a couple of years ago, because they just made me so angry. I think it’s such an arrogant idea that YA can’t be as good as Adult — in fact, why even compare the two? They’re entirely different categories aimed at entirely different age groups. So what if adults enjoy YA? I mean, I don’t see people complaining about teens reading Adult! I hate the idea that YA is somehow “lesser” than other categories. Urgh. I could go on about this for a loooong time. xD
Fantastic post! 😀
THANKS KARA. I QUITE ENJOYED WRITING IT.
Yeah, I don’t really bother reading them either – except if I want a bit of self-righteous anger, lol (if I don’t want to be angry, I don’t read them). Like, what is the point of attacking people for reading YA???? Why can’t people be nice?? And lol, people don’t attack teens for reading adult books because they don’t think we’re intellectual enough 😛
Yep, I could rant for a long time. Which is why I settled for sarcasm – works so much better 😛
Fantastic post Emily! YA in some places has been slammed pretty hard because it isn’t ‘intellectual enough’ or ‘serious’ enough to explore ‘real’ issues (which is obviously not true). YA is its own genre and stands on its own merits. It can be read by both adults and teens alike because the content matter is generally really relatable. Perfect gifs included as well 🙂
Yeah, I know, it’s simply silly. SIMPLY SILLY I TELL YOU. YA is awesome and nobody can convince me otherwise. I am stubborn.
Psssh, being a Proper Adult is overrated anyway. Life is far more enjoyable without them.
Great post! 😀
Who needs to be a Proper Adult? I’ll be 18 in less than a year and I feel soooo far from an adult it’s not even funny.
The sarcasm is literally dripping on my screen aha people who don’t read YA obviously don’t have a life.
I don’t have any more reasons why people shouldn’t read YA, as I do enjoy reading well written YA books tremendously despite no longer being a teenager. I think the title of Young Adult is a little bit misleading, though. It’s the genres fault in general though. You aren’t an Adult until you reach the age of 18. From 18 to 25 you are considered a Young Adult. Now, books marketed for that age-group were marketed as YA initially. Readers started becoming younger, though, and more and more teenagers started reading the novels intended for the age group 18-25, “forcing” authors wanting to engage the readers in the ages of 12 to 17 to market their books in the Young Adult genre. As those books started to predominate, the Young Adult genre turned into a genre for teenagers, forcing the genre of New Adult to be created by publishing houses.
Sorry for the history lesson. I’ll shut up on.
On the YA topic in general, though, my co-blogger Inge and I happened to write a topic on “Being Too Old For Young Adult” today. I swear it doesn’t include a history lesson. 😉
HAHAHAHA I LOVE THIS. I can feel all that sass oozing off the page. NUMBER 5 IS SO ON POINT. It kills me whenever people say “oh but…you could probably breeze through it. It has no worth.” AND I RAGE because a)I’M BREEZING BECAUSE IT’S AMAZING and b)I just read fast lol
I WANT TO GIVE A MILLION STARS TO YOU, EMILY, FOR THIS POST IS GOLDEN. Super A+
*Stands and applauds* I love, love, love this post! It is so terrific. And your GIFS are perfect. I hate the articles that tell adults not to read YA! They are always written by people who haven’t actually read YA. It is so infuriating. But some people will always try and bring successful things down. But if there’s one thing I’m sure of, YA is here to stay and many adults will continue to read it.
Haha, I loved this!
And I agree…I don’t understand all the hate that YA gets. Neither does my mum (who reads as many of the books I throw at her as she can).
I AGREE WITH YOUR NON SERIOUS POST.
NO but seriously. I feel like people look down on YA because they look down on teenagers. Because they are poops. And I don’t care what they think. They’ll just be grumpy for the rest of their lives
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I read the title of the post first and I thought, that this would be a rant of some sort… then I started reading. I must admit, I have not laughed so hard in quite some time, your post is hilarious. I think every adult (and literature teacher) should be given this , it was just epic.
Hilarious! Seriously though, all the YA shaming is silly.
Haha, yeah, despicable me. 🙂
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Damn, I should’ve known all along. 😥 I’ve wasted so much of my life enjoying YA! *cries*
Haha omg, I love this post so much! YA shaming is hilarious. A bunch of people who have probably never read any YA aside from Twilight LOL