This has been a thing for a while, and it’ll continue, I guess, for a while as well. That doesn’t mean I’m going to be any less okay with it. And if the only thing I can do is to talk about it as much as possible, then that’s what I’ll do.
I don’t how to put it any other way, but it pisses me the hell off.
The one about the meme by a ‘School for Writers’
I think it was during the last days of December, I was scrolling through my Facebook timeline, because my friends have a degree in sharing hilarious memes, and I found one that made me see red.
When your crush has good taste in books, but then you find out he likes a Young Adult series
-Going to pretend I didn’t see that
I bet they were trying to be funny. I get that. But it doesn’t make it any less shitty.
For some context:
This was posted by Kafka Escuela de Escritores, a writing school that I’d been following both on Instagram and Facebook. I really like to be involved in the book community in my country. I didn’t use to, but since last year, I’ve really enjoyed meeting people who love books as much as I do.
Imagine my surprise when an organization I looked up to posted something that basically said I wasn’t valid as a reader because of what I choose to read.
These are people who are supposed to encourage people to read and write, not shame them. I told them as much in a comment, but to be honest, I don’t think they really get it. The post is still up, and even though a few others expressed their disappointment, they never apologized or made any kind of comment about it whatsoever.
The one about people agreeing with articles about #bookstagram being shallow and devoid of any real readers
Because real readers don’t use books to take pretty pictures.
Real readers don’t read young adult books.
Well, that’s just bullshit.
I just really don’t have the energy to link to the posts because, they don’t need any more attention. They were published by The Guardian, and another by Vulture. And it’s just the same kind of holier-than-thou attitude as my previous example. I’m a little salty at the disdain for the work that people put in those photos, but I’m even more salty for the contempt for the community as a whole.
The only thing that those paragraphs prove is that bookworms can be idiots too.
Oh, well.
Why do they do it?
I’ve noticed kind of a pattern with this attitude towards YA books and the people who read them.
- A lot of people outside the U.S associate YA books with the U.S.
- People lump YA and Children’s books together.
- People think since YA has a younger target audience, then its themes aren’t as deep, or important as other fiction works.
- On that same note, the commercial success YA properties seems to really irritate them because they think they aren’t as important as other works.
- People think the longer, more obscure and impossible to comprehend, books are, then the must intelligent they will appear if they read them.
Sometimes I have to wonder if they are the salty ones that we’re having a lot of fun here.
The good news is we’ll stay awesome and keep reading whatever our hearts fancy
Our community is filled with talented and thoughtful individuals who can critical-think like nobody’s business. And that’s why this bothers me so much. It’s not about the books perse, even there’s that too. It’s about the people who read them.
YA books aren’t for everyone. Just as not everyone likes broccoli. Doesn’t mean we hate or invalidate broccoli lovers. That wouldn’t be fair to them.
If anything, YA literature has only gotten better, and each time there are more ways of sharing our love for books.
We really can’t control what others think, but we can always rant about it, it seems.
[divider]
ALL OF THIS. I have to remind myself not to sound like it’s shameful when I tell people I read YA. Now I just kind of shrug and go, it’s a lot more diverse than the classics.
STOP SHAMING PEOPLE FOR WHAT THEY READ IT IS RUDE AND UNHELPFUL AND MAKES YOU LOOK LIKE A SNOB.
I am sorry you had this experience! It’s so frustrating to feel looked down upon because of the books you like to read- i just get so excited when I meet someone else who likes to read PERIOD, no matter what kind of books! I will admit even in the US there’s a stigma around admitting you read YA to non-YA readers. I think people have assumptions about what YA is and assume it’s childish or think it’s all Hunger Games/Harry Potter etc. It’s disappointing to be sure, but I feel like YA is slowly starting to make its way into the hands of more and more “casual” readers who are starting to see more value in it and that it’s not about the age of the characters but about the themes!
It does seem like there are some stereotypical YA books everyone judges these books by. It’s not that they’re bad, it’s just that they show such a limited scope of what this amazing community is really about. And you’re right! I do hope that with the popularization of YA, people can form better more informed opinions about it! I think movie adaptations have been helping a little with that.
Thanks for stopping by!
Pamela Nicole recently posted this awesome thing…Vengeful, by V.E. Schwab, not what I was expecting, and not in a good way
Everything you said in this post is so true–really what some people say/think about YA lit is so ridiculous. YA deals with so many topics that in a lot of ways adult literature doesn’t dare to venture into! Really enjoyed this post <3
Cailin @ Rose Petal Pages recently posted this awesome thing…Monthly Memories & Musings // January 2019
Thanks! I really appreciated. Lately this issue has made me really frustrated about how YA is perceived.
Pamela Nicole recently posted this awesome thing…Vengeful, by V.E. Schwab, not what I was expecting, and not in a good way