With how many people seem to feel like it is bad, it is amazing how popular YA fantasy actually is.
Just looking at awards, or tallies will show you that on the top 10, there is always at least 3 YA fantasy books/series. Natural, this got me wondering, why exactly is YA fantasy so popular? After digging about, this is what I discovered.
Adults read young adult fantasy because it young adult fantasy reminds them of their teenage years, their most energetic, and potential filled era. Young adult books feel adults with hope for the future, while also activating their nostalgia. Finally, young adults books provide them with a comfortable space where they can relax, shut down, and prepare for the upcoming day.
For a more in depth example, we will be observing the 9 reasons why adults read young adult fantasy.
1. YA fantasy provides Escapism
Adults may read Young adult fantasy as a means of experiencing escapism.
This is the most obvious reason, and as such it is the first, and least expended upon. Fantasy worlds are magical, and different from our worlds. So adults may want to read young adult fantasy as a means of avoiding their grown up world, and returning to the world of the young.
This does lead to the question of why would adults wish to return to the world of the young?
2. YA Fantasy Provides Potential
Adults want to read young adult fantasy because they want to connect to the time when they had the most potential.
Being an adult is great.
You have money, and a job. You basically have everything you wished for as a child. However, you quickly learn 2 things; 1, you have lost all your freedom, and 2, you can never get higher then where you are then.
As an adult, you lose your freedom because you need to work hard to get the money that you have. You work so hard, and so often, that you do not have time to spend all that money you make.
Additionally, most of the money is spent paying of bills, so you barely make any real money in the first place.
Also, as an adult you have reached your peak. When you were a child, you still had time to practice, and train for whatever you want to be when you grow up. but as an adult, you have no more time left. You have reached the peak of your life.
So, why else would you not want to go back to being a child?
3. Optimism
Adults read young adult fantasy for the optimism.
With the above point in mind, you will get to experience a lot of optimism.
With the feeling of potential that adults feel when reading about these teenage heroes who have such bright futures ahead of them, they get to tap into this well of optimism. For a span, the adult can have feelings of hope for the future.
They can feel better about where they are, and can have a space where they can be happy.
4. Closure
Adults read YA fantasy books to complete the series they’ve been enjoying since they were kids, or just because they are fans of the same series they’ve enjoyed since they were kids.
One of the strangest mistakes that is often made in this discussion is the separation of adults and young adults into 2 distinct pillars that never interact.
Parallel lines, if you will. But the thing is, adults, and young adults are on the same line. it’s just that adults are further on ahead. People tend to forget that young adults who enjoy TV series, and stories, will may continue enjoying the same things even as they enter their adult years.
This is best seen with merchandise culture.
In today’s era, it is not uncommon to find that it is actually adults buying things like toys, and purely for themselves.
Just because they love the medium.
Example
This is something that was recently written about in a Times article. They spoke about how in a Lego store in Manhattan, there was a long line that required bouncers, and this line led to not only sections dedicated to Harry potter, and Star Wars, but even a location called, “Adults Welcomed”.
Additionally, we can also observe just how much money is spent by adults on merchandises, and stuff like anime.
The anime industry, as covered in a previous article, basically makes its billions of dollars just from adults spending money on their merchandise, and the likes.
But that is a bit of an impersonal example.
Example
If you want a more specific example, look no further than this one Quora user.
They were asked ‘How much do you spend on anime merch?’. And his response was, ‘I worked out that I spend (very roughly) approximately $1500 annually in manga and anime alone’. Now that is a lot of money. But what does all this money show us?
In these cases, we see adults who were interested in a series as a youth, but never had the money to spend on it. But as soon as they got the money, they started spending it on the stories.
So, we see that adults and young adults are on the same line, not parallel lines.
5. YA fantasy Books Provide Nostalgia
Some adults enjoy reading YA fantasy purely for the nostalgia.
This reason is often spoken about, and it is with good reason.
I found an interesting research paper on what Nostalgia is actually about, but before we get to that, we need to understand that sometimes adults do lose interest in a series. Maybe the series comes to an end when they are young, so they stop watching it.
Or maybe they decide they want to fit in with friends, and stop watching “childish” things. Whatever the reason, adults may find themselves not watching the series they watched as kids, and move on. but then one day, they stumble upon the series again.
So they decide to watch it again. This leads to a bout of nostalgia.
Nostalgia as is commonly understood, is a feeling that makes one long for the past. But what is the evolutionary use of nostalgia? What benefits does it have for us as humans?
The Evolutionary Benefit Of Nostalgia
A recent study was done about this in the North Dakota State University. They sought to find out whether nostalgia was a past or future oriented experience. If it was past, then that would be of no use, as the past is already gone, and cannot help you.
But if it were future oriented, than it could be of a lot of value. They found that nostalgia is a future oriented experience.
Nostalgia helps improve future-oriented affect by positively impacting motivation-relevant affect: this is through increasing optimism, inspiration, social efficacy, and feelings of purpose in life.
Future-oriented behavior: for example, it could inspire people to have increased intentions for exercise, and eating well.
Future oriented social cognition: nostalgia has goal-related cognition, such as making people set relationship goals, pursuing the goal of connecting with friends and a desires to resolve a relationship problem.
Finally, there is a phenomenon known as shared nostalgia. This is the nostalgia that is experienced between two people, and it exists as a means of creating social connects, and maintaining social connections. This one is very relevant to our next point
6. Themes
Adults enjoy young adult fantasy due to its communal and friendship based themes.
Something that a lot of adults will begin to struggle with. Especially during their post college years, is the problem of friendships.
People can find it hard to form bonds of friendships in their later life, as adulthood is the stage most vulnerable to isolation. There is a great article about loneliness written by everyday health, which I highly suggest you check out.
You will find nuggets like how loneliness is often the result of life changes or circumstances in one’s life that put them at greater risk of feeling that way.
Also, there is a list of the things that are most likely to make you lonely; a lack of close confidants, poor physical or mental health, death of a love one, a change in living situation, and having financial problems.
Basically, the bread and butter of most adults living in out current economy. In retaliation to this, adults may find themselves reading more young adult fantasy. Unlike most of the other fantasy genres, young adult fantasy is specifically geared for friendships.
Stories like the previously mentioned Harry Potter are stories that emphasis how good it is to live a life with friends. Also how you literally can’t defeat the evil dark wizard whose been haunting you your entire life without your friends.
That is a powerful touching message for adults feeling lonesome.
7. Experimentation
Other adults may start reading fantasy from a bout of pure experimentation.
The previous 3 reasons mentioned are contingent on the adult in particular being familiar with young adult fantasy from the word go.
However, that is not always the case.
As hard to believe as it may be, there are some adults out there who have managed to live their whole lives without experiencing young adult fantasy. Others may be familiar with others, but haven’t watched other famous young adult stories.
There are a number of reasons why this could be the case.
Maybe they never were interested in the stories at the time, or they were more into alternative media. For me personally, it was due to my religious family. I was never allowed to watch things like Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, or even anime.
It was not until I had my own money that I could try these media items out myself, and I have enjoyed them thoroughly.
The point is, some adults look back and realize how much they missed, so they decide they want to experiment with young adult fantasy stories.
8. Familiarity
Some adults read young adult fantasy due to it being familiar with the media that they alreaady consume.
Everyone knows the dread that comes with finishing a beloved series. Now you are left with nothing to do with your time. This happens for people of every series and genre. However, young adult fantasy becomes relevant for people who suffer from anime depression.
In our article on it, we went into a deep dive on the different types of anime depressions, their causes, and their remedies. For now, we will just focus on a specific type of anime depression. This is the depression that hits when anime watchers finish a beloved series.
There are many remedies to this feeling, but one of the ones used by most is just to start reading young adult fantasy. Young adult fantasy is similar in a lot of ways to anime. They both have similar worlds, stories, and themes. Things like friendship, and character’s powering up/coming of age.
For anime fans whoa re also good readers, the familiarity of anime is enough to soothe most of their depression.
9. Competency
Some adults may read young adult fantasy as a means of testing their competence in literature.
Young adult has a rather contradictory reputation amongst writing spaces.
On one hand, it is extremely popular. It is very lucrative. As a result publishers are always pushing out for more of the stuff to be made. It is also quite fun to read. But on the other hand, it is looked down upon.
Of course, fantasy in general is looked down upon, but young adult fantasy is looked down upon even by many fantasy fans. We’ve covered in details why this is the case in other articles. We’ve also covered why this genre remains popular in spite of everything.
However, this makes young adult a prime target for adults who wish to feel competent.
Some adults read young adult fantasy to try and compare their own writing skills. Because of how looked down upon young adult fantasy is, and how popular it is. Some writers may feel like if they can write better than the most popular young adult fantasy authors. Then they could be financially successful too.
Other adults want to start reading more, but they are threatened by the bigger books. So they start reading young adult fantasy books.
The point is, there are a great number of reasons adult could feel like they want to read more young adult fantasy. But as long as they keep reading and being entertained, while the hard working authors are compensated for their work, then everybody wins.
Once you finally master this, you will be that much closer to mastering mastery.