The Dead Shadow is going to be released in a little over 3 months, and it’ll appear as a YA fantasy. YA stands for Young Adult. Since we’ve been telling everyone about it, more and more people have come back to us asking questions about YA age.
- How old are YA readers?
- Is it suitable for my son? He’s 8, but he reads a lot.
- Can I read it with my dog? He’s a senior dog, and he likes magical stories.
- I love the sound of i,t but I’m too old for it.
- Is it good for kids? I’m a tutor and I’d love to recommend it as an extra summer read for my students.
- I’m an adult who works in admin. Can I say I’m 12 to read it without feeling ashamed?
We thought we should actually clarify how old YA readers need to be.
How Old Are YA Readers Based on Book Categories?
In theory, YA adults are in a different reading category from children and adults. This has a lot to do with the way the brain develops during adolescence. Essentially, between the ages of 12-13 and 25, your brain undergoes a drastic new developmental phase (in fact, many of them).
This feels like a very long period of time, but this is what we call adolescence. So, if you believed that you were going through adolescence only during your teen years, here’s a piece of bad news for you: your brain isn’t actually fully developed until you reach 25.
So, this is in essence why when you ask bookshops and the book industry how old YA readers are, the answer is likely to be 13-25. You might find shorter age brackets, such as 12-19, or 13-20, or any variation of those, but essentially the idea remains the same.
How Old Are YA Readers According To Stats?
On the one hand, bookshops and publishers tell us that YA readers are teens, up to early tweens. Data agree with the statement that some YA readers are still underage and that some are over 18.
In fact, if you asked The Farshore and HarperCollins how old YA readers are, they’d reply:
- Almost 75% are adults, meaning over 18
- Almost 30% are 28 or over
Being over 18 is completely understandable. After all, the YA reader age bracket goes up to 25 if you follow the brain’s developmental process. So far, so good, right?
Being over 28, however, may come as a surprise to those of us who take the arbitrary age brackets seriously. Presumably, you’d assume that at that age, the brain has long moved on from its adolescent status.
Here’s the thing: it has. But it doesn’t matter, because there’s something else that we need to consider. YA books offer something that other age brackets fail to address in the same terms: the right to grow and develop your own identity, your sense of self.
Not that there aren’t other books discussing in one way or another identity crisis. But those tend to approach it as a break from the person you used to be.
When I was living in Germany, my then mother-in-law was very much into women’s fiction where a 40- to 50-year-old woman suddenly has an epiphany, following a dramatic breakpoint, that she doesn’t want to conform to the image others have of her anymore. She read countless stories about women redefining their identity after a separation, an empty nest syndrome, being cheated on, etc.
She didn’t experience any of those breaking points in real life, but that isn’t the point here. The point is that there are also books about discovering your identity, which are aimed at individuals who have already defined who they were and decided they didn’t want to be that person anymore.
YA books do not help you question an already established sense of self. They help you build a sense of who you are.
How Old Are YA Readers When They Build A Sense of Self?
How old were you when you knew who you were?
The answer depends a lot on the type of support and guidance you’ve received growing up.
If parents were happy to let you question things and yourself, you’ve probably reached that point very early in life.
Strict childhood and not allowed to explore things your own way? Chances are, you’ll have waited until going to university and gaining your independence to figure out who you really are.
Let me add another layer to this. If you grew up being neurodivergent in an environment where you felt forced to mask, you’ve probably reached adulthood without having a single clue about who you could be. There’s the mask, but who is underneath it all? You don’t know. You’ve been too busy trying to keep the mask and survive to ask yourself such questions. Whoever you are is something you’ve never felt safe to explore growing up.
So, you may be 28, 38, 48, 58, or even older and suddenly finding that the YA identity quest resonates with you. And you know? You’re not on your own.
How Old Are YA Readers for The Dead Shadow?
We don’t have an age bracket per se.
We think that the book is an easier read for readers aged 13 and over, but this is simply a matter of taste and reading maturity.
The themes of newfound family, grief, revenge, and self-discovery are ageless. They don’t stop resonating just because you’re over 25.
They are probably also relevant to the senior dog who’s being read to by their owner!
So there you have it. How old are YA readers: however old as they want to be, as long as they enjoy the book!
By the way, it’s coming out August 19th, so get ready to meet Rhode and the Shadow soon.