Why We Write Clean Young Adult Books

Everyone likes love. It’s much happier to experience, talk about, and read than, say, hate or disgust. So we love love.  And who doesn’t love first love in all its agony, desperation, confusion, elation…hope…hopelessness? Sweeping joy! Blinding, transformative, consuming happiness!

We also love teenagers. Teenagers feel. Like, that’s their neurological job, and it just so happens we want our readers to feel, too. Very, very deeply. We’d love for you (dear reader) to cry or throw our book or jump out of your seat, laugh hysterically, bite your nails, yell at pages.

Thus, teenagers. Love.

Know what we don’t love, though? Gross. And we don’t want you to feel gross.

When you throw open the door on a private, romantic moment between two people, you might feel gross, so…we keep our characters’ most intimate moments private. If you prefer steamy but clean YA romance, our books are here for you.

As for bad language in YA, it’s not God’s fault our characters make their choices, so we don’t like them (or anyone) to blame Him by using His name as an expletive. The “F” word and its close friends, The Other Swears, are lazy and overused, and we prefer words that paint beautiful scenes rather than splatter the pages with grime.  You know…pretty words. Smart, clever, funny words that combine into smart, clever, funny, emotional, clean YA without the gross, gratuitous, or graphic.

If you’re looking for a clean young adult book that will suck you in with its relevance and emotion, we’re your girls and you’re our readers. Welcome. We love love, teenagers, and you.