Patrick Ness totally gets why YA is necessary:

“I think to be a teenager is to yearn. I yearned for someone to tell me I was all right, that everything was going to be all right…I look back on that teenage me with real tenderness, real affection. I so want to be able to tell him that he’s going to be OK…

In a real way, I think this is what my books for teenagers have all ended up being about. Being heard. Being taken seriously. Being treated as a complex being who doesn’t always get things right but who also doesn’t always get things wrong. And being told that there’s hope, there’s life, there’s laughter and love, that hurt is real, that pain is real, yes – but so is possibility, so is a liveable, wondrous future, despite what anyone may tell you. And the response to that has been amazing, and sometimes heartbreaking.”

Yes yes yes. I wish I had more to add, but Ness beautifully sums up why this is a genre I love.

Make sure to read the whole article, too.