Here’s some phrases I notice adult media likes to use when they’re taking about YA fiction:
“the teen experience”
“the teen voice”
“the teen mind”
They use it like so:
”_______ writes so well about the teen experience.”
”_______ easily recalls the teen voice.”
”_______ has a good understanding of the teen mind.”
As if there is something homogenous about teens. As if the introduction of hormones somehow levels the playing field and erases every social, personality, and experiential difference lived between the ages of 13-19.
There is no “teen experience.” Or if there is, it’s about as homogenous as the “adult experience.”
Grown-ups, can we kindly stop being condescending to the nascent grown-ups?
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