Chick Lit: Bridging the Generation Gap?

Lately I've noticed quite a bit of crossover between chick lit and YA fiction for teen girls. Meg Cabot, best known for her Princess Diaries series, has also written several romances for adult readers, including The Queen of Babble and Size Twelve is Not Fat (one of my favorite titles).









Similarly, Ann Brashares, author of the bestselling Sisterhood of theTraveling Pants series, has recently published her first work of adult fiction, The Last Summer (of You and Me).











If the traffic only flowed one way, we might assume that YA authors like Cabot and Brashares are simply trying to retain their audience by adapting to the changing tastes of their maturing readers. As Brashares writes to her fans on Sisterhood Central:

The characters are a little bit older (in their early twenties) and the themes a
bit more sophisticated than ones I've written about before. So it's probably
not right for younger readers. But if you are a seasoned reader of the
Traveling Pants series--probably fifteen or older--I think this book would
be appropriate and (hopefully!) enjoyable for you.

However, authors are moving in the other direction, too. Sarah Mlynowski, author of several chick lit novels published by Red Dress Ink (a Harlequin imprint), has staked out YA territory with Bras & Broomsticks, a fantasy series about a high-school girl who covets her younger sister's newfound magical powers.

So is the distinction between YA and adult fiction simply a matter of packaging? Is there any real difference between books written for teenage girls and those written for women? Author and essayist Deanna Carlyle has no problem with calling YA books for girls "chick lit":

In the U.S. publishing industry, the line between chick lit, young adult fiction and women’s fiction is blurring.Some editors are calling the new developments “humorous women’s fiction,” “romantic comedy” or “tween lit.”
But don’t be fooled.
Chick lit by any other name is just as fun and just as fresh.

In an April 2005 interview with Carlyle, Sarah Mlynowski explains that she made the transition from adult to YA lit because she wanted to emulate her hero, Judy Blume, in reaching out to young readers and helping them fall in love with books:

Judy Blume is my inspiration. I grew up reading her novels. They were the first books I read that made me laugh out loud and want to become both a reader, and a writer. It was a compete revelation for me to see my experiences and pre-pubescent angst affectionately reflected in print.

People always call Helen Fielding the mother of chick lit, but I think it’s Judy Blume. She’s who we all (chick lit writers) grew up reading, and she’s the one who helped shaped our consciousness.

How to Grow Forbidden Fruit

My dad likes to tell a story about when my brother was just a toddler and started messing with something my parents didn't want him handling.

"Billy, if you touch that, you're going to get a spanking," my dad warned.

Billy reached out his little hand, stopping just short of the forbidden object. My father swears that he could see the wheels turning in his son's mind: "I know if I touch this, I'm going to get a spanking, but it might be worth a spanking if I could just touch it ONE MORE TIME!"

How many of us have had this same experience? As soon as someone tells us no, we're immediately inspired with a craving for the forbidden fruit. To quote my father, a man who knows a great deal about human nature, once more: "Everyone wants what they think they can't have."

It's worth remembering that this wisdom holds true for books. For an excellent example, read Judy Blume's introductory essay to Places I Never Meant to Be: Original Stories by Censored Writers.

The Most Important Freedom

I have a friend whose father used to control her leisure reading so strictly that he actually used a magic marker to black out any objectionable words or passages. At the bookstore and the library, I frequently see children negotiating with their parents for the privilege of reading a particular book: "Please, please, please!" In running my book group, I've met several parent-child pairs who read together, and I've often thought what a wonderful experience that would be, but reading in tandem also opens the door to many opportunities for loving censorship: "I don't think we should continue with this book" or "Let's stop reading this book for now, and we'll come back to it when you're older."

My own childhood reading benefited from a kind of benign, or perhaps benevolent, neglect. My parents gave me books, many of them, which certainly directed my reading, but they also encouraged me to make use of my school and community libraries, where I always had the freedom to make my own choices. I don't remember ever having to plead for the right to read Judy Blume or Norma Klein or Zilpha Keatley Snyder (the closest thing my generation had to J. K. Rowling). My parents may have kept a watchful eye on what I was reading (and my mother assures me that they did), but I was unaware of it. For my part, I never tried to hide what I was reading from my parents. The thought never crossed my mind.

Today, the Fourth of July, we celebrate our many cherished freedoms, including freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom of the press, and freedom of assembly. Underlying all these is the most important right of all--freedom of thought. Children should not be denied this most important freedom merely because they are children and therefore legal minors. Intellectual independence is not a privilege to be earned but a birthright. Children should and must be free to develop their own thoughts, and this means observing, questioning, and entering into conversation with a wide range of other thinkers. What better way to do this than to read?