MORGAN REILLY

I teach high school.

Sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds. My day is filled with them, whether in my high school English class, my college writing class, or even my film history elective.

So from 7am to 3pm, my day is packed with teenagers. I listen to their problems and offer advice (when asked; most of the time, they just need someone to listen). I share their accomplishments (academic, financial, whatever the case may be). I try to comfort them in sorrow (a lot of dark stuff reaches young people, and it’s important to remember that). They’re funny, they’re snarky, they’re irreverent, but most of all, they’re young adults. They’re thinking, growing, experiencing, and shaping into the person they’re going to become once they go out on their own and try to live life as an adult.

As adults, we know that life is hard. It SUCKS. It’s stupid. Adulting is ridiculous. But there are things about it we enjoy, things that we hold onto to make the day easier, things that we cling to to make us laugh. Young people do the exact same thing, and sometimes in the exact same ways that we do.

I’m a part of an interesting generation. I feel like I’m a cross between Xennials and Millennials. I was born in 1984, and, growing up, I spent all of my time around adults (I have a Gen-X brother and older cousins, and I was homeschooled for several years). I did have friends when I returned to public school, but I didn’t go out and party. I stayed home and wrote stories and poetry and I played a LOT of guitar and piano. So, I have the interesting experience of relating to both Xennials and Millennials. With that perspective, there is a lot about today’s youth that I understand–their inseparable attachment to their cell phones (because technology can be so cool when it’s not abused), their MEME GAME (they’ve sent me some hilarious ones, I can tell you), and they’re incredible problem-solving skills (because they’re so familiar with incredible resources to help them).

[Side Note: I’m a professional procrastinator, so the problem-solving skills is really relatable to me…usually because of problems I’ve created with my “I’ll do it later” attitude.]

Young people today ingest so much information–YouTube, Twitch, TikTok (RIP Vine), Snapchat, Instagram, you name it. Nothing is off limits, and they’re now more informed and more distracted than ever. Wouldn’t you be, too, if you’d rather watch your favorite gamer play through a difficult scenario in your favorite game than study for the stupid SATs? Because studying for the SATs feels like a bottomless black hole sucking the soul out of your body, but you have to get a high score to earn scholarships and gain college admission, so no pressure but please don’t fail because your future depends on it.

With all of that, spending a great deal of time with young people and being a part of a generation that understands their quirks, it makes sense to me that I would write stories for them. They’re experiencing so much more of life than even my generation did (we didn’t get Facebook until we were in college, back when it was only for college students, and even get me started on MySpace). Information is always coming at them, from social medial to digital news outlets to celebrities they follow on any of those platforms. They see everything. And they see it all the time. Before, we had to wait until we were home to check our computers…if we even had one at home. Other times, we didn’t get to a computer until we were at school or in a public library–if any of the computers were available. Not so, with this generation. They have constant access.

So why not write stories for them to help ease their passage into independence? (A lot of young people are already independent, just FYI, because of whatever home/school life they’ve experienced.) Why not write stories that give them hope about themselves? Stories that make them feel seen?

It upsets me to think that a lot of people look down on YA fiction, but young people are hungry for content that makes them feel seen. Why do a lot of young people consider The Great Gatsby their favorite book? Or Catcher in the Rye or Perks of Being a Wallflower or every other novel you had to read in your high school English classes? These are books considered a part of a literary canon, and they’re on academic reading lists because there are things to be learned from them. And young people are watching and waiting to see if the story will connect with them, if they’ll be represented, if they’ll be seen.

Books open the door for discussion, for debate, for understanding. Books bring up questions that need answers. And young people deserve to get those answers.

Young people are watching/listening/experiencing/etc. So, yeah, of course I’m going to write stories for them. Why wouldn’t I?

What story did you read as a young adult that stuck with you? Let me know in the comments, if you’d like!