YA fiction: too dark?

In the past few days, the blogosphere has lit up with huge reaction to this piece that The Wall Street Journal ran on on June 4, claiming that YA was seriously detrimental to our youth and that "publishers use the vehicle of fundamental free-expression principles to try to bulldoze coarseness or misery into their children's lives." Excuse me?

The problem I have is that people are so quick to criticize YA, to criticize teens for having problems. There is a reason why they have problems. Being a teen today means being bombarded with mixed media messages that want you to be thin, beautiful, perfect, sexual, smart, cool... I could go on and on. 

Society is so eager to stuff teens into a pre-constructed box that any issue that arises simply isn't tolerated. Teens MUST be perfect. They MUST keep their mouths shut. Society doesn't want to hear what's really going on: rape, incest, molestation, drugs, drinking, depression, suicide, homosexuality. 

My response to those against YA is this: not all YA is about dark themes. But dark themes are becoming more widely sought out by teens because they are just trying to cope. Adolescence is hard. Don't blame teens for their issues -- instead, try to help. Have you ever actually listened to a teen? They have more to say than you think. 

Don't keep them silent, and if you do, we writers will do the talking for them.

Thanks to YA author Mindi Scott for giving me a heads up to an awesome article by NPR in response to The Wall Street Journal. Check it out here.