Young Adult vs. New Adult

cogwrites:

What’s the Difference, Anyway?

So many people seem to think YA and NA are the same thing, or NA is YA but with the sex. Have a bullet list from someone who’s tired of seeing them lumped into the same category.

Young Adult

• the target audience is 12 to 18 years old
• the protagonists are usually kiddos that still live at home and need their parents’ signatures on official documents
• themes commonly work with personal relationships on an emotional level, and do a lot of coming-of-age/coming-into-ones-own-identity
• sex, swearing, and violence are all watered down for a younger audience

New Adult

• the target audience is 18 to 30 years old
• the protagonists are of the moving-out age and can start making the big decisions on their own
• themes commonly encompass the overall lifestyle shift of taking on adult responsibilities, moving away from home, and dealing with the consequences of the aforementioned big decisions
• there is potential the sex, and the swearing, and the violence

These are incomplete lists, but the point is please, please, please stop equating these two different, but equally valuable, genres.