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'''Young adult romance literature''' is a genre of books written for teenagers. As defined by [[Romance Writers of America]], a romance novel consists of a central love story and an emotionally satisfying ending.<ref name="sheet">{{cite book |last=Gillis |first=Bryan|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/965782772 |title=Sexual content in young adult novels: Reading Between the Sheets|date=2015|pp= 101-124 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=9781442246874|OCLC=965782772}}</ref> Young adult romances feature a teenage protagonist, who is typically female, white, and middle-class,<ref name="sisters">{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/245021822|title=Sisters, schoolgirls, and sleuths: girls' series books in America|last=Carpan, Carolyn.|date=2009|pp=84-128|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=9780810857568|location=Lanham, Md.|oclc=245021822}}</ref> although books in the twenty-first century include a wider variety of protagonist.<ref name="cart" />
Young adult romances were very popular in the 1950s and early 1960s, but were supplanted by more realistic young adult novels in the late 1960s and 1970s. Romances became popular again in the 1980s, although the trend at that time was toward series by publisher brand rather than individual authors. Subgenres for young adults, such as paranormal romance, evangelical romance, and dystopian romance, became popular in the twenty-first century. Parents and educators often criticized the reading of romances, but at their best, "quality young adult romances celebrate relationships".<ref name="sheet />
==1950s and 1960s==
The success of ''[[Seventeenth Summer]]'' by [[Maureen Daly]], published in 1942, is generally acknowledged as the impetus for romance novels specifically written for teenage girls, although Daly considered her novel to be written for adults.<ref name="sisters" /> Young adult romance novels were referred to as "junior novels"<ref name="pattee">{{cite book |last1=Pattee |first1=Amy S. |title=Reading the Adolescent Romance |date=2011 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9780415875943}}</ref> and sometimes "malt shop novels"<ref>{{cite news |last1=Kaufman |first1=Joanne |date=7 Jan 2018|title=For the Love of Malt Shop Novels |website=New York Times Book Review}}</ref>. Popular authors were [[Anne Emery (young adult author)|Anne Emery]], [[Rosamond du Jardin]], [[Betty Cavanna]], [[Janet Lambert]], [[Lenora Mattingly Weber]], and [[Mary Stolz]].<ref name="sisters" />
The teen romance novels of this era focused on family and domesticity. Usually set in small towns, girls from traditional, middle-class families worried about being popular and getting dates. Gender roles were conventional, and it was presumed that girls would grow up to become wives and mothers. Sex in these books seldom progressed beyond kisses.<ref name="sisters" /> Despite a growing national concern with juvenile delinquency, it was not an element in "junior novels".<ref name="cart">{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/945729948|title=Young adult literature: from romance to realism|last=Cart, Michael,|isbn=9780838914762|edition=Third edition|location=Chicago|oclc=945729948|date=2016}}</ref> These novels explicitly warned readers against "bad boys", while emphasizing the importance of heterosexual romance and chaste behavior on dates.<ref name="pattee" />
The girls in these books cared about being considered pretty, although the focus was primarily on facial beauty rather than the attractiveness of the body. Boys expected loyalty and fidelity from the girls, and in exchange, they cherished and protected the girls. Romance was presented as the natural relation between boys and girls.<ref name="becoming">{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/21117549|title=Becoming a woman through romance|last=Christian-Smith, Linda K.|date=1990|publisher=Routledge|isbn=0415901030|location=New York|oclc=21117549}}</ref> Donelson describes the formula:
<blockquote>By the 1950s, certain taboos had been clearly established for the adolescent novels—no early or forced marriages; no pregnancy outside marriage; no drugs, alcohol, or smoking; no profane or obscene language; no deaths; almost no ethnic references; no school dropouts unless as object lessons; no divorce; no sense of the ambivalent cruelty and compassion of young people; no alienation of young people from society or family; no sexuality or sensuality.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Donelson |first1=K. L. |chapter=Growing up real: YA literature comes of age|editor=M. Lenz, R. Mahood|page=59|title=Young Adult Literature: Background and Criticism |date=1980 |publisher=Chicago: American Library Association |isbn=9780838903025}}</ref></blockquote>
More realistic [[Social_novel#Young_adult_problem_novel|problem novels]] in the late 1960s supplanted young adult romances in popularity.<ref name="sheet" />
==1980s and '90s==
There was a resurgence of young adult romances in the 1980s with [[Romance_novel#Rise_of_the_category_romance|category romances]] for teens, with the category or line being more important than the name of the individual author.<ref name="clawson">{{cite journal |last1=Clawson |first1=Laura |title=Cowboys and schoolteachers: gender in romance novels, secular and Christian |journal=Sociological Perspectives |date=2005 |volume=48 |issue=4 |pp=461-479 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/sop.2005.48.4.461 |accessdate=3 September 2019}}</ref> Multiple new teen romance lines began in the 1980s, such as [[Scholastic Corporation|Scholastic Book's]] Wildfire series, [[Bantam Books]] [[Sweet Dreams (novel series)]], Silhouette (an imprint of [[Harlequin Enterprises|Harlequin]]) First Love, and [[Sweet Valley High]], with some speculation that the teen romance resurgence was related to a growing wave of conservatism on the heels of the presidency of [[Ronald Reagan]].<ref name="sisters" /><ref name="becoming" /> "Girls are buying and reading with a passion not seen since the 1950s and 1960s, when romances were last popular."<ref name="parrish" />
Publishers were interested in original books that could be published directly in paperback format, rather than being released in hardback first.<ref name="sisters" /> The teen romance phenomenon "signaled the emergence of a new marketplace—the chain bookstore—and the emergence of a new type of book: the paperback original."<ref name="cart" />
Unlike the earlier wave of "junior novels" which were primarily written by popular individual authors, the new teen romances were titles published under a series name and logo. Publishers actively marketed their teen romances. The Silhouette First Love line had a $1.4 million advertising campaign. The Sweet Dreams series (1981-1995) was the longest running single title romance series of the 1980s. Sweet Valley High was the most popular series.<ref name="sisters" /> Scholastic's Wildfire sold 1.8 million copies of 16 titles in one year. The first young adult novel to reach the [[New York Times]] paperback best-seller list was Sweet Valley High ''Perfect Summer'' in 1985. More than 34 million Sweet Valley High books were in print by 1990.<ref name="cart" />
Both malt shop novels from the '50s and series romances in the '80s pushed the message that conformity was the path to popularity.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1022200901|title=Paperback crush : the totally radical history of '80s and '90s teen fiction|last=Moss|first=Gabrielle|page=9|publisher=Quirk Books|year=2018|isbn=9781683690788|location=Philadelphia, PA|pages=|oclc=1022200901}}</ref> Teen romances were not solely about romance, however; protagonists were teenage girls learning to balance the demands of school, family, friendships, and boyfriends. Early books, like the junior novels, had little sex, although that gradually changed over the years. The romance series for teens in the 1980s was modeled on adult romances with "more innocent" storylines.<ref name="sisters" /> These books were generally told from the point-of-view of a 15–16 year old girl experiencing her first love.<ref name="parrish" /> The category romances included coming-of-age and finding-oneself plot elements.<ref name="collections">{{cite book |last1=Pattee |first1=Amy S. |title=Developing Library Collections for Today's Young Adults |date=2013 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=9780810887350 |pp=119-120}}</ref> Like the junior novels from the 1950s, romance was positioned as the key to the heroine's development, and she is transformed by romantic success. The emphasis on beautifying one's self now included concerns about body type and weight.<ref name="becoming" />
Publishers and education professionals variously attributed the popularity of the category romances to escapism, conservatism, reaction to the "problem novel", wish fulfillment, and love-without-sex being less threatening. Authors attributed it to the books making teens feel good and being about things that could happen to them.<ref name="parrish" />
In September, 1981, a coalition of the Council on Interracial Books for Children, [[American Federation of Teachers]], [[Coalition of Labor Union Women]], the [[Disabled in Action]] of Metropolitan New York, and the [[Women's Action Alliance]] [[Women%27s_Action_Alliance#Non-Sexist_Childhood_Development_Initiative|Non-Sexist Child Development Project]], issued a statement condemning teen romances; specifically, for:
<blockquote> Teen romances 1 ) teach girls that their primary value is their attractiveness to boys, 2) devalue relationships and encourage competition between girls, 3) discount the possibility of nonromantic friendships between boys and girls, 4) depict middleclass, White, small town families as the norm, and 5) portray adults in stereotypic sex roles.</blockquote>
In contrast, a survey of librarians by ''Publisher's Weekly'' found that they approved of teen romances that "portray working mothers, single-parent households, and girls with hobbies and career aspirations", and that they encourage teenagers to read (although they did decry the "formula" approach).<ref name="parrish">{{cite journal |last1=Parrish |first1=Berta |title=Put a Little Romantic Fiction into Your Reading Program |journal=Journal of Reading |date=Apr 1983 |volume=26 |issue=7 |pp=610-615 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40029267 |accessdate=3 September 2019}}</ref>
The category romances were supplanted in popularity by [[chick lit]]<ref name="sisters" /><ref name="clawson" /> such as [[Gossip Girls]] and [[The A-List (novel series)|The A-List]], which some classify as romance,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Pierce |first1=Jennifer Burek |title=Youth Matters: Buying into Gossip |journal=American Libraries |date=Apr 2007 |volume=38 |issue=4 |page=76 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27771146 |accessdate=3 September 2019}}</ref> and young adult horror such as the ''[[Fear Street]]'' series.<ref name="cart" />
==2000s==
The twenty-first century saw a resurgence of individual authors. Notable authors include [[Stephenie Meyer]], [[Sarah Dessen]], [[Meg Cabot]], [[Louise Rennison]], [[Anna Godberson]], [[Melissa de la Cruz]], [[Cecily von Ziegesar]], [[Simone Elkeles]], [[Lurlene McDaniel]], C[[Ann Brashares]], [[Kate Brian]], [[Meg Cabot]], [[Zoey Dean]], [[Melissa De La Cruz]], [[Annette Curtis Klause]], and [[Megan McCafferty]].<ref name="cart" /><ref name="collection">{{cite book |last1=Pattee |first1=Amy S. |title=Developing Library Collections for Today's Young Adults |date=2013 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=9780810887350 |pp=119-120}}</ref>
A popular Harlequin Teen series was ''Kimani Tru'', written by black authors (male and female). The first book, ''Indigo Summer'', published in 2007, was on the ''[[Essence]]'' bestsellers list.<ref name="sheet" />
===Evangelical===
Evangelical books are those that are published by Christian presses, sold at Christian bookstores, and written for a Christian audience. Young adult evangelical romance series include ''Cedar River day dreams'' ([[Bethany House]]), ''Class of 2000'' ([[Harvest House]]), ''The Christy Miller series'' ([[Focus on the Family]]), and ''Pacific Cascades University'' (Palisades).
In these books, more of the conflicts are based on family issues than in secular romances. Generally, nontraditional families are given a negative portrayal with a stable traditional family structure being shown as essential to a character's well-being. The "boyfriend plot" is less prominent than in secular romances. The girls in the books are less dependent on boys, and greater emphasis is given to the girl's relationship with God and family than a romantic partner.<ref name="religion">{{cite journal |last1=Christopherson |first1=Neal |url= https://www.jstor.org/stable/3712025 |accessdate=3 September 2019|title=Accommodation and Resistance in Religious Fiction: Family Structures and Gender Roles |journal=Sociology of Religion |date=1999 |volume=60 |issue=4 |pp=439-455 |doi=10.2307/3712025}}</ref>
===LGBTQ===
This subgenre consists of teen romance novels that contain LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning) themes or characters.<ref name="letcher">{{cite journal |last1=Letcher |first1=Mark |title=Off the Shelves: Celebrating Love in All Shades: YA Books with LGBTQ Themes |journal=The English Journal |date=March 2009 |volume=98 |issue=4 |pp=123-126 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40503279 |accessdate=3 September 2019}}</ref>
;Examples:
*''Something Like Gravity'', Amber Smith
*''The Geek's Guide to Unrequited Love'', Sarvenaz Tash
*''[[Boy Meets Boy (novel)|Boy Meets Boy]]'', David Levithan
*''What If It's Us?'', Becky Albertalli, Adam Silvera
===Paranormal and dystopian===
This subgenre consists of teen romance novels that contain settings and themes from science fiction, fantasy, or horror.<ref name="sheet" /> After the success of ''Twilight'', [[Barnes & Noble]] set up stand-alone sections for paranormal romance.<ref name="cart" />
Paranormal romances tend to place a great emphasis on virginity and equate it with morality and goodness. The heroine seems ordinary to herself, but is revealed by the hero to be extraordinary. The romance is fated by destiny, and resisting tempation leads to eternal love.<ref name="twilight">{{cite book |last1=Seifert |first1=Christine |title=Virginity in Young Adult Literature After Twilight |pp=23-54|date=2015 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=9781442246577}}</ref>
;Examples:
*''Intertwined'' series, [[Gena Showalter]]
*''[[Wings (Pike novel)|Wings]]'' series, [[Aprilynne Pike]]
*''[[The Wolves of Mercy Falls]]'' series, [[Maggie Stiefvater]]
*''[[Noughts & Crosses (novel series)|Noughts and Crosses]]'' series, [[Malorie Blackman]]
*''[[Twilight]]'' series, [[Stephenie Meyer]]
*''[[Hush, Hush]]'' series by [[Becca Fitzpatrick]]
*''Mara Dyer'' series by [[Michelle Hodkin]]
===Realistic===
The subgenre of realistic romance consists of teen romance novels that include elements of the problem novel.<ref name="sheet" />
;Examples:
*''[[Annie on My Mind]]'', [[Nancy Garden]]
*''[[Eleanor & Park]]'', [[Rainbow Rowell]]
*''Anatomy of a Boyfriend'', Daria Snadowsky
*''the Infinite Moment of Us'', [[Lauren Myracle]]
*''[[Dairy Queen]]'', [[Catherine Gilbert Murdock]]
==References==
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Fiction by genre]]
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[[Category:Young adult literature|Romance Literature]]
[[Category:Young adult novels]]
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