Young adult romance literature

[5] Popular authors were Anne Emery, Rosamond du Jardin, Betty Cavanna, Janet Lambert, Lenora Mattingly Weber, and Mary Stolz.

[3] These novels explicitly warned readers against "bad boys", while emphasizing the importance of heterosexual romance and chaste behavior on dates.

[6] Donelson describes the formula: By the 1950s, certain taboos had been clearly established for the adolescent novels—no early or forced marriages; no pregnancy outside marriage; no drugs, alcohol, or smoking; no profane or obscene language; no deaths; almost no ethnic references; no school dropouts unless as object lessons; no divorce; no sense of the ambivalent cruelty and compassion of young people; no alienation of young people from society or family; no sexuality or sensuality.

[8] Multiple new teen romance lines began in the 1980s, such as Scholastic Books' Wildfire series, Bantam Books Sweet Dreams, Silhouette (an imprint of Harlequin) First Love, and Sweet Valley High, with some speculation that the teen romance resurgence was related to a growing wave of conservatism on the heels of the presidency of Ronald Reagan.

"[3] Unlike the earlier wave of "junior novels" which were primarily written by popular individual authors, the new teen romances were titles published under a series name and logo.

The first young adult novel to reach the New York Times paperback best-seller list was Sweet Valley High Perfect Summer in 1985.

[6] Publishers and education professionals variously attributed the popularity of the category romances to escapism, conservatism, reaction to the "problem novel", wish fulfillment, and love-without-sex being less threatening.

[9] In September 1981, a coalition of the Council on Interracial Books for Children, American Federation of Teachers, Coalition of Labor Union Women, the Disabled in Action of Metropolitan New York, and the Women's Action Alliance Non-Sexist Child Development Project, issued a statement condemning teen romances; specifically, because: Teen romances 1) teach girls that their primary value is their attractiveness to boys, 2) devalue relationships and encourage competition between girls, 3) discount the possibility of nonromantic friendships between boys and girls, 4) depict middleclass, White, small town families as the norm, and 5) portray adults in stereotypic sex roles.

[9]In contrast, a survey of librarians by Publishers Weekly found that they approved of teen romances that "portray working mothers, single-parent households, and girls with hobbies and career aspirations", and that they encourage teenagers to read (although they did decry the "formula" approach).

Notable authors include Stephenie Meyer, Sarah Dessen, Meg Cabot, Louise Rennison, Anna Godberson, Melissa de la Cruz, Cecily von Ziegesar, Simone Elkeles, Lurlene McDaniel, Ann Brashares, Kate Brian, Zoey Dean, Annette Curtis Klause, and Megan McCafferty.

[3] A popular Harlequin Teen series was Kimani Tru, written by black authors (male and female).

[1] The wider array of characters, settings, and plots has resulted in a number of sub-genres within the young adult romance category.

[13] This subgenre consists of teen romance novels that contain LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning) themes or characters.