# How much sex is there in young adult/teen novels? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 23, 2010, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-sex-is-there-in-young-adult-teen-novels/537057 "2010-04-23T01:06:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![choie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/choie/32/7829_2.png) [@choie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/choie)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2010, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-sex-is-there-in-young-adult-teen-novels/537057/21 "2010-04-23T20:14:13Z")
Not a hijack – I’d have asked the same question. I read _It_ and I don’t remember that at _all_. Yipe! That’s V.C. Andrews territory indeed. (Am I a horrible geek for reading the last several posts and immediately imagining the Knights Who Say Ni screaming in alarm?) > [@mlees](#): > > So a 14 year old girl with a crush on one of her adult teachers puts that name in her book… > > Call me old fashioned, but I think there might be a potential for a snafu in there somewhere. Heh. Yeah, that’d be gross. But at least in the story he’d be 21 and she’d be 18. Also the books are pretty expensive – about $30 – so I don’t know if a 14-year-old would do something like this on a whim. Besides, it’s just a story. I suspect the male lead is more likely to be Jacob whatsisname from _Twilight_, not to mention Taylor Lautner, Robert Pattinson, or Justin Bieber. It’s their dime, we don’t judge. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Sonnenstrahl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@Sonnenstrahl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sonnenstrahl)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2010, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-sex-is-there-in-young-adult-teen-novels/537057/22 "2010-04-23T20:56:58Z")
Kind of related to the 14-year-olds and thongs thread, there are things I would have liked as a teenager that would have lost all interest if my mother had been involved in purchasing them so personally I would tone down the sex if you expect them to be bought primarily by parents. I still read a bit of young adult fiction, though not much of the vampires/werewolves fantasy genre, and I would say that it’s not so much the quantity of sex that’s different but the tone. I find that sex is often treated seriously and there is, if not moralizing, at least a recognition that it’s a Big Deal. Let’s just say that with the exception of the aforementioned _Forever_, I don’t remember leafing through YA books to find anything titillating. (And sex was hardly treated in a cavalier manner in that one, either.) Off topic, but it’s interesting that _Forever_ still seems to be the standard in books on sex for teenagers. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2010, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-sex-is-there-in-young-adult-teen-novels/537057/23 "2010-04-23T21:10:52Z")
I’m trying to think of what YA I’ve read recently that included sex. _Lips Touch Three Times_ shocked me a little bit at how sexy it was (and I don’t think I’m THAT easily shocked). I would say that was definitely THE MOST explicitly weird sex I have read in a YA book ever, or at least that comes to mind. ---
**Author:** ![choie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/choie/32/7829_2.png) [@choie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/choie)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2010, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-sex-is-there-in-young-adult-teen-novels/537057/24 "2010-04-25T00:36:44Z")
> [@Sonnenstrahl](#): > > I still read a bit of young adult fiction, though not much of the vampires/werewolves fantasy genre, and I would say that it’s not so much the quantity of sex that’s different but the tone. I find that sex is often treated seriously and there is, if not moralizing, at least a recognition that it’s a Big Deal. Let’s just say that with the exception of the aforementioned _Forever_, I don’t remember leafing through YA books to find anything titillating. (And sex was hardly treated in a cavalier manner in that one, either.) That’s a good point. In the adult version, it’s assumed that this isn’t the heroine’s first time or anything. In a teen version, I don’t think that’d be a good idea – the sex, if I end up going that route, will have to be more Significant. One other problem is the lack of contraceptives. Not to get all preachy, but depicting teens having ‘unsafe sex’ wouldn’t fly, I don’t think. But the heroine isn’t gonna be carrying condoms along with her to the 19th century, and the hero isn’t in any condition to be thinking of something like that. Yeah, as I mull this over, I think the sex will have to be in the ‘everything but’ realm. > [@](#): > > Off topic, but it’s interesting that _Forever_ still seems to be the standard in books on sex for teenagers. I know! That’s pretty astonishing. Maybe it’s just because we’re all “of an age” that remembers it so vividly. For us it’s “Ralph” as a cultural touchstone. For the youngies, it’ll probably be Edward Cullen biting his pillow to shreds and Bella getting all black and blue. How very healthy. > [@delphica](#): > > I’m trying to think of what YA I’ve read recently that included sex. _Lips Touch Three Times_ shocked me a little bit at how sexy it was (and I don’t think I’m THAT easily shocked). I would say that was definitely THE MOST explicitly weird sex I have read in a YA book ever, or at least that comes to mind. That’s interesting – reviews don’t seem to indicate that it’s especially explicit. Do you remember what was weird/sexy about it? ---
**Author:** ![WomanofScorn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b5a626/32.png) [@WomanofScorn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WomanofScorn)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2010, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-sex-is-there-in-young-adult-teen-novels/537057/25 "2010-04-25T17:30:02Z")
I’m practically 30 and the YA books I read back in the day were the Christopher Pike, L. J. Smith, and R.L. Stine types. I absolutely adored the first two authors more so than the last. This would be in the '90s of course. While there were a lot of romance in those books, I don’t remember much sex. When sex was mentioned though, it was definitely not described. On a side note, with Vampire Diaries becoming a show they’ve reprinted a good chunk of L.J. Smith’s books and I got a set for Christmas (mine were destroyed in a flood and I was upset!). I still love these books and find them oddly comforting 14ish years later. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2010, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-sex-is-there-in-young-adult-teen-novels/537057/26 "2010-04-25T19:13:48Z")
I read parts of Lips Touch Three Times and what got to me was how really horrible it was. I mean, it would have been sexy if it weren’t so god awful cheesy. It felt like it was Twilight written by a Francesca Lia Block wannabe. Has anyone read any Norma Klein? She was really frank about sex. I remember in her book That’s My Baby a teenage boy has sex with a married woman a few years older than him and there’s a detail about how they’re having sex on her period which he likes because her husband won’t do that. And he pulls out and there’s a little blood. Definitely more graphic than most things that you read but it felt real. It wasn’t in there to titillate, really, but just because it was a descriptive detail. When it comes to sex I think she was able to write stuff that I got as a teen/YA even better than Judy Blume. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-sex-is-there-in-young-adult-teen-novels/537057.md?page=1)