Keywords
young adult literature, young adult romance literature, summer reading
Preview
Where teenagers are, there romance will be also. As a high school English teacher, I constantly witness the intensity of adolescence as young people start to explore their own identities. It is impossible to separate this time of teenagerdom from romance, since “adolescents are fascinated with developing sexuality and love” (Litton, 1994, p. 28). Even if they are not experiencing it firsthand, teens are hearing about it constantly from their friends, in school hallways, in the movies and tv shows they consume, and especially in the literature they read. Even the core texts in high school echo this desire for love; Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is a key 9th grade text and begs the question: can teenagers really fall in love?
Recommended Citation
Nielson, Annika
(2025)
"The Summer of YA Love: Young Adult Romance, Tiktok, and the Classroom,"
The Utah English Journal: Vol. 53, Article 14.
Available at:
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/uej/vol53/iss1/14
