: Re: Why is young adult romance now being written primarily in the first person? My recollection is that when I started reading romance novels in the 1980s, the majority (perhaps 60%) were written

@Moriarity138

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In general teenagers tend to be (a) a little narcissistic and (b) intensely interested in their peers and what they think and feel. When you write in the first person as a teen protagonist, you are effectively taking on the persona and presentation of a peer, a fellow teen with whom they can empathize, rather than that of the distanced, adult, third-person narrator.

I'm actually currently in the midst of converting my own YA manuscript from close third person to first person. In addition to the above reason, I wanted to be able to present the worldview of my protagonist, with its prejudices and foibles intact, without the implicit endorsement of an authorial voice. There are also things that feel intrusive to report second-hand that you can report in a less filtered manner with a first-person narrator.

I'd be lying if I said that it wasn't also true that I noticed that almost all popular contemporary YA is in first person now (and we know how "on trend" teens like to be, even if they think of themselves as rebels). But the change also seems to have freshened and opened up the narrative. The biggest challenge, of course, is maintaining an authentic voice, in the face of not having actually been that age in a very long time.

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