'Writing for Young Adults'

Fiction for young adults, it transpires, is thriving, despite the many distractions that technology has thrown into our lives. In the session, ‘Writing for Young Adults’, on the concluding day of the Rajnigandha Times Delhi LitFest, authors Giti Chandra and Radhika Dhariwal made for absorbing listening as they opened up on the brave new world of young adult fiction.
Chandra and Dhariwal are proof that such writers are coming out with works of substance. Chandra is author of ‘The Book of Guardians’, a fantasy trilogy for young adults, while Dhariwal has explored the animal world in ‘The Petpost Secret’.
Chandra gave the example of ‘The Hunger Games’ by Suzanne Collins, of woman authors intrepidly going beyond stereotypes, offering works that don’t shy away from violence, or documenting the dark side of life. “They’re all venturing into a post-apocalyptic and dystopian universe of werewolves and vampires. It’s no longer ‘Little Women’.” Which, she added, is not necessarily a bad development.
Indeed, both put forward the argument that there is a subtle role reversal currently under way. A gender-neutralization, if you like, of young adult fiction, where neither men nor women own a subject or a theme. Another case in point is John Green (‘The Fault in our Stars’). Chandra felt Green’s subject material would earlier have come from the imaginations of female writers. “He’s now one of the most popular authors around, whose books have resonated strongly with young adults.”
Each stressed that stereotypes should be avoided as much as possible. “It’s great to emphasize the differences, just don’t make one sex more disadvantaged than the other,” urged Chandra. “A lot of young adult fiction has tough female protagonists, and it’s a good thing that these books portray women as the equal of men.”
But apparently, as Dhariwal pointed out, it still holds true that boys don’t want to read books written by girls, though girls have no problems reading books by boys – some things never change!