I was originally just going to tweet some thoughts about this post on writing teen dialogue that’s been bouncing around my circles on Twitter. Then the tweet started being several hundred characters too long, and I decided it would be better just to go ahead and dump everything into a blog post. I needed to blog anyway.

This gets rantier as it goes on. I apologize in advance.

I refrained from responding in any way to the article when I first read it yesterday, and to be honest I’m still nervous about saying anything, because I definitely seem to be in the minority here; also because I’m not a teen, and the author of the original post is. That said, I’m not too terribly far removed from being a teen (I turn 26 tomorrow); I have three siblings still in their teens; I spend a good deal of my personal and professional time around teens; and I was writing for teens while still a teen. I realize I can’t claim to speak for teens (which is essentially the point I’m trying to make), but I feel I can with validity say that I found the original post offensive in several places.

  • The “certain YA author” mentioned has gotten into some controversy with the YA community, and has faced some well-deserved criticism. At the same time, that certain author is genuinely popular with—even beloved by—teen readers and the teen internet community, and they are a significant part of his commercial success. (Admittedly some members of that community, me included, are aging into their twenties now.) It’s disparaging to that community to blast the author’s style as “stupid” and “ridiculous” when it speaks to, and has spoken to, a good many teens.
  • “We curse. A lot.” Apart from the generalization, it’s also a terrible stereotype to suggest anyone who doesn’t curse habitually is “Mormon,” and it’s frankly offensive to suggest (however sarcastically) that a teen who doesn’t curse is cause for concern. Many teens refrain from cursing for many varied personal reasons, religious or otherwise.
  • “I don’t use [grammar] when speaking to friends.” I did, as a teen. Most of the teens with whom I communicate do—in some cases, even more than their parents. This is purely anecdotal.

In the interest of full disclosure, I was homeschooled as a teen, and I come from an observant Christian background. I was still a teen; my experiences as a teen were no less valid than those of the author. My point is simply this: no one can speak for all teens everywhere, and there is no one standard teen experience. If you are a teen, or if you write for teens, please don’t denigrate teens whose experiences don’t happen to conform to yours.