Welcome to Complicated! I’m so excited to be part of this exciting joint venture with Jen and I hope you’ll join us as we delve into all things YA.
You might be thinking, “Congrats, Katie, for finding a way to spend even more of your time writing, but what makes you think you know anything about young adults?” That’s a great question, and I’m happy to answer. I’ve been writing stories featuring young protagonists since I first picked up a pencil and stapled construction paper together to make my own colorful mini booklets as a child. My debut YA fantasy novel, Reign Returned, was published in 2022, and the sequel, Blood Divided, will be released in October 2023. But I didn’t become an author and then decide I loved writing for teens …I’m a YA author precisely because I love writing the types of stories typically associated with teens and young adults.
Prior to becoming an author, I was a pediatric neuropsychologist, and I specialized in cognitive testing with teens diagnosed with cancer, specifically, brain tumors and leukemia. In hospital settings, this is a population that is both grossly ignored and terribly misunderstood…which is how I usually felt myself as a teen. Early in my medical journey, I remember being surprised at how quick professionals were to transfer teen patients to me, but I assumed it was just because I was the newest member of the team and didn’t have the luxury of choosing my own patients. What I soon learned was that other professionals struggled to connect with teens because they were too “intense,” “moody,” “self-absorbed,” or “unwilling to let anyone in.”
Once again recognizing terms frequently used to describe my teenage self, I made it my goal to meet my teen patients where they were at, seeing them as the individuals they were and appreciating them for that even if I didn’t agree with some of the choices they made. Where others saw stubbornness, I saw conviction. Where others saw too much optimism or pessimism, I saw people going all in, for better or worse, on what they believed. When colleagues would complain that someone wouldn’t talk about their feelings as an intentional way to demonstrate power in a therapeutic relationship, I saw someone who was scared but trying to be brave as they navigated being neither a child or an adult, too old for some things and far too young for others.
Being a teen is about being intense, moody, self-absorbed, and learning who to let in…and these are foundational life lessons that we either learn and grow from or reexperience on repeat until we finally decide to try something different. For teens, there’s only now. Everything is filtered through a single point of view, and every feeling is as warm as sunshine, sharp as a papercut, or crushing as a landslide. Stories told from a YA perspective are overflowing with this vibrant urgency, and I relate to it as much as I love it. YA books remind us our decisions have consequences, relationships can help or ruin us, and most importantly, they remind us we’re not as alone as we sometimes feel.