I'm here to clear up some confusion about YA books. When some people hear that label, they think "meant for children." Why is it, then, that some books classified as YA have tons of explicit content that doesn't seem "appropriate"? There are actually complex and messy industry reasons behind this, mainly to do with female, qu33r, and POC authors getting pushed into the category and then pigeonholed there. (Also, totally not a coincidence that such authors get funneled toward a lower-paying category.)
I go over the main 3 reasons in this video, but basically, everyone's lives would be better if a clear distinction existed between Teen Lit and New Adult Lit, but this did not work out and forced the YA category to house more than it's nominally supposed to. Pearl-clutching at individual authors (or worse, calling for book bans "in the name of the children") is not the way to resolve this. The industry itself needs to commit to recognizing the necessity of New Adult, or it'll always be forced to room with YA and scandalize people.
