If He Had Been with Me

Young adult romance is a literary genre. It is part of the broader category of contemporary romance, meaning a romance that takes place within the time period it was written. Young adult romance commonly includes characters who are between the ages of thirteen to eighteen. Most young adult romances follow the same tropes as contemporary adult romances, such as enemies to lovers, friends to lovers, star-crossed lovers, and love triangles.

The first novel to be considered a young adult romance was Seventeenth Summer by Maureen Daly, published in 1941. It was quickly followed by many successful young adult romances that were called junior novels or malt shop novels. These novels gained popularity throughout the 1950s and 1960s, and mostly focused on conventional values and conservative gender roles.

Young adult romances changed in the 1980s and 1990s as they began to focus less on domesticity and more on school and family obligations, as well as social issues. However, they remained focused on the heroine’s transformation via romantic success. These novels also began to focus on body and beauty concerns.

In the 2000s, young adult novels expanded. They became more diverse as popular series began to include heroines of varied ethnic backgrounds.