Who Is YA Really For? Ally Watkins on Teen Reading

Nine out of ten main characters in a decade of New York Times young adult bestsellers are older than 15. So who is YA really being written for? Librarian and researcher Ally Watkins joins Lee to talk about her research and what it means for the middle schoolers discovering books they want to read.

Ally is an academic librarian and a former youth services librarian at a public library. She talks about why adult readers and publishers' marketing may be shaping a market meant for teens.

Lee and Ally also take on the big question: are kids really reading less? Ally says studies often miss what young people actually read, like Wattpad, WEBTOON, AO3 and fan fiction. She explains why "words are words," and why audiobooks and graphic novels count. They also talk about overscheduled kids, less time for reading aloud in class, and why letting kids choose their own books matters most.

Chapters:
[00:00:00] Introduction
[00:00:36] Book Notification
[00:01:22] Guest Introduction
[00:01:53] Ally's Research on YA Protagonist Ages
[00:03:16] Why Are YA Protagonists Getting Older?
[00:04:05] Kids as Discerning Readers
[00:06:52] Are Kids Reading Less?
[00:09:16] The Reading Drop-Off Age
[00:10:20] Does It All Count as Reading?
[00:12:04] The Value of Long-Form Storytelling
[00:13:40] Encouraging Reading Choice
[00:14:52] Building Lifelong Readers
[00:15:45] Book Recommendations & Awards
[00:17:18] Graphic Novels
[00:17:58] Adult Reading Trends
[00:19:10] Closing

Ally’s Research

This is is the DOI of Ally's research article: https://doi.org/10.1080/13614541.2025.2513193.

For those in your audience who don’t have access to academic articles, here is an interview that Ally’s university news service did with me
about the research: https://olemiss.edu/news/2025/07/young-adult-literature-is-not-as-young-as-it-used-to-be/index.html.

Other Books & resources mentioned:

• ALA Youth Media Awards, including the Michael L. Printz Award, the Morris Award, the Excellence in Nonfiction Award, the Sydney Taylor Book Award, the Coretta Scott King Book Awards, the Pura Belpré Award and the Stonewall Book Awards

• Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta

• American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

• The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

• We Are Okay by Nina LaCour

Creators & Guests

• Lee Schneider - Host
• Ally Watkins - Guest