Why Young Adult?

Okay, so I have already answered the question about why I write. But, now, I'm faced with a new soul-searching question: Why do I write YA fiction? Well, the answer is simple: I want to make a difference. I don't know about you, but as a teenager, I read Danielle Steele and Sydney Sheldon. There were no romance novels or mysteries written for the teenage audience (at least if there was, I didn't' know about them). And, I have to say that I'm not sure I want my fifteen-year-old daughter reading Danielle Steele and Sydney Sheldon just yet. Teenage girls like to read romance, especially if the boy swoops in to rescue them from some danger or mysterious situation. In their young adult minds, they dream of meeting their own Prince Charming and riding off into the sunset with them (I know, cliche, but it's true!). This is all fine and good, but I don't want my daughter to think that sex has to be a part of it. I want her to know that holding onto her morals isn't going to keep her from snagging the boy of her dreams. I want her love story to develop into a healthy, God-centered relationship. If I write about teenage love which doesn't involve sex, isn't that a step in the right direction? Tick-Tock is just that. It's not only a love story, though. It is also the story of a less than perfect protagonist who chooses to abandon her morals (and I'm not talking about sex here) to be with the one she loves. In the end, she discovers that it is her decision to become someone she never wanted to be that is the cause of all of her problems. It's an entertaining read, and yet a life lesson, too. I want to mention a blog that I've read a couple of times this week: http://thoughtsthatmove.blogspot.com/ Ms. Wendy and I apparently have a lot of the same things on our minds. On more than one occasion, we have written about the same topic. It's not always on the same day, and we tend to come at the issues from entirely different angles, but still, we broach the same subjects quite often. The first post of hers that I read was about writing to make a difference. This is exactly why I write young adult fiction.