I represent Adult fiction and YA & MG fiction, but I talk more about the latter. I know I do this, and it’s not because I don’t have a lot to say about Adult fiction. It’s that YA, and especially MG, are still new. They are still evolving. Adult genres get redefined every once in a while, and audiences grow, but mostly, adults are adults and their writers know who they’re writing for.

I talk more about YA because the category itself is known for jumping from trend to trend, being super enthusiastic and supportive, yet misunderstood (and often disrespected) by mainstream literary culture. Its target audience can relate, and they aren’t known for standing still either. Adults age at a much slower pace. The difference between a 32 year old and a 36 year old is barely a blip compared to that of a 13 year old and a 17 year old. Sometimes writers laugh when I say things like, “this character should be 16 instead of 15,” as if one year could possibly make that much of a difference. But when you’re a teenager, it can and it often does.

With adults, whether they’re 52 or 27, they have at least one thing in common: they can look back on their adolescence. Teens can’t. They only know the here-and-now. This is one of the main reasons I love YA and want to bring more of it into the world. Teens are full of possibilities. They have more ahead of them than behind them, and their stories often reflect that.

A less idealistic reason I love teens, though, is their ability to see through adults’ bullshit. They know when they’re being pandered to. They know when you clearly don’t understand them. They know when you don’t care about their lives – meaning, their actual lives and not the silly melodramatic ones adults think they have. Teens are tricky and they are wonderful. If you’re choosing to write for them – and not just about them – then you should know why you’re doing so.

When I read submissions, I see writers succeeding in storytelling and realistic characters and good ideas… what I see failing in MG & YA lately is setting. It’s not hard to see why. Setting is generally only considered when physical place has a major focus. What I see writers ignoring more and more is that setting also refers to time. Contemporary/realistic fiction is becoming very blurry, time-wise, and doesn’t feel as authentic. We’ve gotten so used to each decade being “similar enough” in the late 20th century that it seems we’ve failed to notice it’s over.

Recently I tweeted a reminder to MG and YA writers that made many writers feel “old.”

@sarahlapolla · Aug 26: MG/YA writers: If your pub date is 2015 or 2016, no one in your target audience was born in the ’90s. Use this info while you write. [1/2]

@sarahlapolla · Aug 26: Think of the world they were born into, how they are growing up, & keep in mind what concepts/politics would be irrelevant to them. [2/2]

My point is that the 21st century is a teenager now. What’s more, it has a shorter attention span than its predecessors. It’s not going to slow down and wait for writers to catch up.

So, who are the teens living in this century? Why is our late 20th century mindset no longer cutting it?

Today’s teens are not 20th century teens in a way that goes deeper than simply pop culture and fashion. Plot and character should be the first things you have in mind when you sit down to write, but once you know what those are, go back to that question of why.

Why did you choose to write for teens? Why will today’s teens care about this story? Even if you write historical fiction, there should be a reason you think modern teens will connect with the time and story you’ve chosen. Otherwise, why make it MG or YA? The reason you chose to write for this audience should be based on more than YA being popular in publishing right now. Think of who your audience is and what they care about. More importantly, remember what they don’t care about.

There’s a huge difference in cultural and political attitudes from the 19th century to the 20th. Think, for example, how folks growing up in 1890 differ from the folks who came of age during the Roaring ’20s. They’re only one generation apart, and yet seem like a completely different world if you look at the history books. This is where we are now. The new century has taken shape and 20th century attitudes are becoming less and less relevant. For an American audience, a big part of that shift is because of the very tangible life-changing event that kicked off the new century, 9/11.

Want to go back and watch 9/11’s influence on pop culture? Aside from the many “post-9/11 novels” that came out around 2005-2008, and our desire to bring back superhero movies in a big way, take these examples of my two favorite shows:

– The West Wing was largely about the staffers of a liberal president who never went to war, and who’s biggest problem was that he didn’t disclose an illness before the election. After 9/11? Bartlett becomes increasingly more willing to take strikes on foreign land, the show itself becomes darker and more high stakes, and suddenly “the day in the life of a White House staffer” wasn’t a strong enough premise to compete against the real world drama of the early ’00s.

That said, using too many outdated references can absolutely set off a teen’s bullshit detector. Sure, they can Google that band from the early ’00s and, yes, they’ve heard of VCRs before, but do they care? If they look it up online, will their understanding of the book as a whole really be effected? Probably not. So why risk interrupting the narrative? When I tell my authors to delete certain references, it’s not because I think teens won’t understand them. It’s because I know the reference isn’t really for them.

Besides, those superficial references are easy to fix anyway. You don’t need to study modern teens or be up-to-date on the latest trends. You just need to remember when it’s OK to be non-specific and embrace fiction. You’re writers; this shouldn’t be difficult.

For example:

• “Low-rise skinny jeans” = jeans
• “Smartphone/”cell phone” = phone
• “Facebook” = social media site with a cute name you made up
• “Taylor Swift” = pop star

See? Easy.

Honestly, unless your plot is heavily dependent on whether your main character tweets, listens to Justin Bieber, or uses their phone, you probably don’t need to call attention to it at all. The best uses of setting are the ones you barely notice because you’re already fully immersed in it. Trust your reader. They will assume your characters do “normal teen things” even if it’s not directly written on the page. Don’t over-think it. (I mean, it’s not like you’re writing an episode of The Vampire Diaries or anything.)

As writers, you don’t need to envision the future, or even make a comment on it, in order to write about the present. We (writers, agents, and publishers alike) just need to remember what the present is and respect who is going to build the future from here.