Friday, June 6, 2014

I AM NOT ASHAMED

I'm sure if you were anywhere on the Internet yesterday, you read or at least heard about that article about how adults who read YA should be ashamed or you saw the hashtag #PromoteaYAInstead.

Now I know there will be many posts about this, a lot more brilliant and insightful than mine. And I know I already stated this on Twitter and Facebook. But I am here to announce again that I AM NOT ASHAMED.

I read YA. I write it. But guess what? I read adult, and write that too. Currently on my bookshelves waiting to be read are books by Rick Riordan, Rachel Harris, Dan Brown, Jennifer Armentrout, Elizabeth Gaskell, Lee Child, and Patricia Briggs. My bookshelves are a mix of classics, chick lit, adventure, fantasy, and YA everything. It was actually only five years ago or so when I really started reading YA, but I love it.
Some of my YA bookshelf

I LOVE YA. And I'm not here to say why. For one, there have been/will be others who will explain all the merits of YA better than I ever could. For two, I. Don't. Have. To. Explain. Myself. I love it. That's that.

What I find sort of funny (sort of not) about that article is the idea of being ashamed in the first place. As a kid, as a teen, there were many things I was ashamed of. I was ashamed of playing with Barbies at twelve when all of my friends were too grown-up to play with them. In front of certain people, I was ashamed to admit how much I read. I was ashamed of good grades and ashamed of bad ones. I was ashamed of liking *NSYNC at twenty. I'm not gonna lie, it took me awhile, but I've long passed the point of being ashamed of what I like, what I write, what I do, who I am. These things that make us unique, that's what makes the world interesting. That's what makes for great conversations, and beautiful art, and most especially- books that we can't put down. I'm not ashamed of loving Twilight (even though it's become the *cool* thing now to hate it). I'm not ashamed of bawling while reading The Fault in Our Stars and The Book Thief and Eleanor & Park. I'm not ashamed of the fact that I still wish I'd gotten a letter to Hogwarts. I read YA, and I write YA, I devour YA, and I love YA. And I'm not ashamed.

To the lady who wrote the article: it's okay that you don't like YA. And it's okay if you want to judge me for reading it, because it won't stop me from loving it. I love YA. And a la Forrest Gump, that's all I have to say about that.

Oh, and just so you know, I also like One Direction, trashy magazines, wedge sneakers, musicals, and nerdy t-shirts, and I'm not ashamed of those either. ;)

1 comment:

  1. THANK YOU. I was just thinking about making a post about this and I still might...

    By the way, NEVER be ashamed of liking N'sync! XD

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