I am a full grown adult, well into my middle age, but I still love to read books targeted to teens and children. I also read books targeted for adults and enjoy a spicy romance, suspenseful thriller or memoir. But I seem to really connect with novels geared towards young adults.

There are a few reasons for this, I believe. First, in a lot of ways I feel like I never grew up. I didn’t take the traditional path of getting married and having children. Nor did I give that all up to focus on a career. So I don’t really have all of those things that most people come to expect from adults. I sometimes feel like I stopped growing up in my early twenties. (We could take a deep dive at the traumas I encountered between 16 and 30, but I think that’s a little too much for this post).

Next, which I guess goes with the first as well, I am neurodivergent, which has contributed to not really getting to know myself until recently. I masked so much growing up and all through my adult life, that it wasn’t until I started removing the masks that I came to understand some very basic truths about myself. This has happened within the last several years. So in a way, I am currently experiencing a lot of the same things the characters in young adult novels are experiencing, so I can fully relate to them more than some of the adult characters.

And finally, they’re just really amazing books! It’s important to embrace good writing, and there are some amazing authors writing stories for kids and teens. The books are fun and meaningful and provide different perspectives on the world around us.