Defying Expectations: Representations of Youths in Young Adult Literature

Abstract

AbstractThe authors used a youth lens to interrogate representations of adolescent characters and experiences that reinforce or contradict social constructions of youths across young adult novels commonly read in secondary classrooms. The authors found examples across all 10 examined novels of adolescent characters taking on adult‐like roles, exercising emotional discipline, and/or demonstrating agency and independence in ways that challenge traditional ideas about youths and disrupt socially constructed stereotypes of adolescent/ce. The authors suggest that the youth lens, especially when applied to young adult literature, can foster critical analysis and discussion of dominant discourses about adolescents/ce, and offer their own analytic template as a scaffolding tool for secondary educators to use with students.