Everything I Learned From Reading Contemporary YA for One Month

Here, in no particular order, is everything I learned from reading contemporary YA novels for the better part of one month:

1. A lot of teens want to go to Stanford. Not all of them will get in.
2. You can love your best friend or hate your best friend or actually be in love with your best friend. You still won’t end up at the same college.
3. Colleges no longer send out acceptance letters in big envelopes or rejections in little envelopes. It’s all digital. Except when it isn’t and someone frames a rejection letter to stay humble. Then it might be analog.
4. If two teens are involved romantically and over eighteen they will have sex (or come close anyway).
5. You can’t buy love or happiness, but you can win the lottery.
6. It is a truth universally acknowledged that if a girl’s father is a mechanic she will know more about cars than her love interest.
7. You can have widowed or divorced parents but you cannot have a daughter living with her single mother. Same goes for sons living with single fathers.
8. STEM-loving girls are drawn to art-loving boys–opposites attract.
9. There will be dancing.
10. Teens might worry about affording their dream college or getting into their dream college. Teens will not apply to college based solely on proximity and financial aid packages.
11. Everyone goes to prom. No one goes to prom alone.
12. There will be pining.
13. If anyone loses something of great sentimental value they are not getting it back.
14. Some people might wear glasses or contacts but no one wears sunglasses.
15. Even if it feels like the absolute worst thing has happened, it’s going to be okay because life goes on and you’re still heading toward that happy ending.