Controversial Romance

Callum2288

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Hi everyone, new guy here!

I'll just cut to the chase, really. I have a planned romance in my YA novel that may be a little controversial with mainstream audiences. It's a lesbian romance, which can be enough of a struggle with some publishers, but the characters involved are a 14 year old girl and an 19 year old prostitute. Nothing sexual ever happens, and there is never a relationship, just a good chunk of emotional tension (mostly the younger girl developing a crush in the older girl). Is that too far for YA, do you think?
 

Lillith1991

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Hi everyone, new guy here!

I'll just cut to the chase, really. I have a planned romance in my YA novel that may be a little controversial with mainstream audiences. It's a lesbian romance, which can be enough of a struggle with some publishers, but the characters involved are a 14 year old girl and an 19 year old prostitute. Nothing sexual ever happens, and there is never a relationship, just a good chunk of emotional tension (mostly the younger girl developing a crush in the older girl). Is that too far for YA, do you think?

Why exactly do you think it would be the lesbian element that would make up any substantial part of the squickiness? Particularly in YA, where agents and publishers are deliberately asking for more diverse books in the wake of the WeNeedDiverseBooks campieng. I don't think that it is a pair of girls is too far for YA, since a lot of big publishers gladly put out LGBT orientated books.

Now, the same may not be true for the relationship itself because of the age difference. In the west, there's a fairly substantial difference between a 14 year old and 19 year old regardless of the gender of both of them.
 

Becca C.

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Hi everyone, new guy here!

I'll just cut to the chase, really. I have a planned romance in my YA novel that may be a little controversial with mainstream audiences. It's a lesbian romance, which can be enough of a struggle with some publishers, but the characters involved are a 14 year old girl and an 19 year old prostitute. Nothing sexual ever happens, and there is never a relationship, just a good chunk of emotional tension (mostly the younger girl developing a crush in the older girl). Is that too far for YA, do you think?

This doesn't sound all that edgy, to be honest. Lesbian romance? Not edgy. Prostitute? Meh, but not all that out-there. 14-year-old and 19-year-old? Been done before, but I think if you portrayed that age difference as no big deal and totally surmountable, you'll have problems. It is a big difference and I would expect that to come across in the book. Other than that, I don't really see any problems.
 

thisprovinciallife

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I think it would only be controversial if something sexual happened, because of the legal ramifications...

but 14-year-olds idolize and crush on 19-year-olds all the time. No big deal, and lots of agents/editors are pushing for more diversity in YA, so you'll be fine. Good luck!
 

veinglory

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Plenty of YA now shows sex between minors. That age gap would be a slight challenge but if the plot has no actually sex the point is moot. So I see nothing that would cause angst for the publisher or the market.
 

Osulagh

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Sex, drugs, violence, and other much nastier subjects are strewn about in edgy YA novels. Lesbian romance isn't as controversial to say the least.

Though, lesbian romance is not so much of a struggle for publishers, as much as it is selling that book to the right publisher who'll sell to the right market. There are a lot of YA lesbian romance novels out there already, and publishers prepared to take them to market, just not the mainstream publishers and market as of right now.
 

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I think the difficulty may be more in the POVs, depending on how you're doing it. If you have a 14yo MC, your audience is likely going to be younger than 14, so you're looking at 12 and 13yo readers. Prostitutes are nothing in upper YA, but I'm not sure that true for lower YA. If your MC is 19, it's a harder sell as YA, which tends to top out at 18yo protags. It also might produce more pushback to have the relationship from the 19yo's POV towards a 14yo, particularly if she's a prostitute, even if the relationship has nothing sexual to it. And if it's both characters as MCs, finding the right place to market the novel may be difficult just because of the age difference between the two.
 

Callum2288

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My thoughts on the characters being gay as being controversial likely come from some of my grandad's old writing books (at least 30 years old) which call homosexuality "taboo" in novels. I guess that's my fault for not researching it.

The story is definitely upper YA, pretty much new adult, but I'm gearing towards telling the story from the older girl's POV. I have a new vision of the story being a sort of twisted yet sweet combo of Oliver Twist, Blue Is the Warmest Colour and Lolita; with the prostitute becoming infatuated with the young runaway instead of vice versa. The kind of feeling I'm getting now is more Literary Fiction than YA, so that probably solves the age problems.

Thanks for your help though everyone, you've been a great help!
 

wampuscat

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It can be both literary fiction and YA. :)

I agree with the others that nothing in your description makes me think it would be that controversial.
 
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Honestly, in any genre there's nothing wrong with what you describe as long as there's no sex. There are no laws against just dating minors, and especially since it's still a pretty small gap and there's no sex, there's no real issue.


As has been said, there's nothing stopping you from writing Literary Fiction in YA. Plenty of writers do.

It would also be possible to sell this as adult Lit Fic, possibly, although if the 14-year-old is the protag, it might not be easy, especially if you'd already started writing it as YA.
 

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If you do run into a lot of negative feedback over it (i.e. from people in the publishing world), you could always change the younger girl from a 14-year-old, to a 16-or-17 year-old who is stuck in a really, really restricted and sheltered lifestyle that makes her have the maturity and life experience of a 14-year-old. You don't have to change the actual story and plot - just relatively small age details that wouldn't be such a pain-in-the-ass overhaul.
It really wouldn't change the relationship at all - just the age. There's loads of 16-17 year-olds out there that have grown up sheltered and who've experienced less of the world than you had when you were 14. Come on, we all know one.
 

DaisyH

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Homosexuality in YA isn't that controversial. Queer characters are everywhere if you look.

I think the age gap in itself is more worrying-- a 14 year old and a 19 year old are at very different stages of their life and usually, a 14 year old is pretty immature. However, younger teens will almost always develop those little crushes on older people so unless there's an exploitive or abusive element to the non-romantic relationship (as you mentioned that there's no sex and no relationship), I think you should be fine.