Hello all, and welcome to the YA Saves Project!
Many of you may know the concept behind YA Saves, but for anyone who doesn't, a quick description.
A few months ago, an article was posted on the Wall Street Journal discrediting YA literature's value and otherwise making unsavory remarks about something that has reached out to many people's lives. The article itself almost doesn't matter anymore, because what it launched was a wave of positivity in which people shared stories about how YA saved their lives.
And that brings us here, to this blog. This is a place to share these stories and to spread the incredible positive force of YA literature.
We will feature stories written by YOU, the readers, and hopefully bring a little bit more positivity to all of our lives.
I'd like to begin by sharing my own story.
I'm not anyone special; nothing particularly bad has ever happened to me, nor anything particularly good. But, as I'm sure many people can relate to, High School was a rather awkward time for me. I'd always felt a bit socially inept, and I was confused about who I was and who I wanted to be. I had always been a voracious reader, particularly of fantasy literature (my favorite books in late elementary school were the Lord of the Rings trilogy). Freshman year of High School, however, I discovered the wonders of YA.
I began devouring books, and those books became some of my closest friends. And then, incredibly, my love of books brought me more friends in school. I would have long discussions about books with them, and we would share and recommend books to each other. Even now that we've left High School behind, these same friends and I still trade books and talk about them online, a thousand miles apart.
I also discovered the YA community online - twitter, book blogs, author blogs - and began reading and discussing books even more often. Through this I have gotten to talk with authors I admire and make friends all across the world, simply because of a mutual love of reading. These friends are just as dear to my heart as if I'd met them face to face. I feel more culturally connected, more in tune with the rest of the world, because the rest of the world is right there, an internet connection away. This is truly a global community, bringing people of all walks of life together.
Reading started out as a hobby for me, but now it's become my life. Books have brought me friends, entertainment, and now I'm majoring in English at college, hoping to work in the publishing industry and one day maybe write a book of my own.
I owe my life today to YA literature, and I wouldn't change that for the world.
~Rachel
Can you relate? Do you have your own story to tell? Email us YOUR story at YASavesProject@gmail.com and tell your story to the world. Write it down, make a video, use pictures, song, any method you can think of to share your story. This blog is all about YOU, the YA reader, and it can be whatever you make it to be! Thanks, and once again, welcome to the YA Saves Project!
