A cover design for Annie on My Mind

Queer YA: The Early Decades

While queer YA has exploded over the past decade, it began in the middle of the 20th century, with the first kiss in 1969.
Babysitter's Club

How The Baby-Sitters Club Reflected Our Dreams of Safety

In The Baby-Sitters Club, each girl has agency.
Students looking for books in a school library

A Brief History of Young Adult Fiction

Before there such a thing as "YA," librarians struggled not just to define a genre, but to figure out how to get books in the hands of young readers.