I love to write and read YA fiction, and from the writer standpoint, I am always analyzing characters for how they handle the situations they get themselves into. As the aunt of two young women who devoured teen lit when they were still in school (and still do love YA), I am very conscientious of the overall message that YA heroines send to readers. The teen years are impressionable, mostly because you are still in the process of developing your beliefs, feelings, morals, and thoughts about pretty much everything in the world around you. It’s a pivotal time that shapes your life and probably doesn’t change too much until you hit your thirties (and realize that you don’t know anything, really). So, what makes a compelling heroine that you can be happy to have a young woman look up to? Should she be perfect? A straight-A student? Celibate? Should she go to church and never use swear words and volunteer at the local homeless shelter? Well… if an alien inhabited her body and you were writing the teen version of The Stepford Wives, then maybe. But if you want to create a great character, she has to be real. Here are some great attributes that a YA heroine should have: 1. Keep it real. There is no such thing as the perfect teen. (Hell, there’s no such thing as the perfect person of any age.) Teens are going to get into trouble, lie to their parents, push boundaries, keep secrets, experiment with drugs and alcohol, have sex (or at least come close), and are going to deal with adult situations. Your characters should deal with some of these things. They can’t live inside a perfect bubble of sunshine and roses, oblivious to the world around them. So let them get into some trouble. 2. Give them a moral compass. While they’re getting into trouble, allow them to realize that what they are doing is wrong. Let them feel guilt, shame, sadness. Let them get beat up, fight back, or turn and run. No matter what they do, let them feel the weight of it. “I should have stood up for myself. I’m such a coward.” “I shouldn’t have drank that alcohol. Mom’s going to notice it’s missing. I’m sure she knows I’m hungover.” For every action there is a consequence, and figuring that out is important. 3. Let them make mistakes again. After all, do we ever really learn the first time? 4. Make them strong. By this, I mean that they don’t need to depend on others for every single thing. It’s good to have friends to come to, but your heroine should be making her own decisions, standing by them (even when they go wrong), and solving her own problems when they arise. Don’t make her the damsel in distress who needs to be saved by the hot guy on the motorcycle. Don’t make her dependent on someone else’s approval. Yes, teens do care what others think of them, but to make her self-worth revolve around what the hot guy thinks is depriving her of growth needed. If you must make her self-worth revolve around what someone thinks in the beginning, make sure this changes by the end of the book. 5. Make them changeable. Most books cause characters to walk through the fiery pits of hell to make it to the end. If people in real life go through such harrowing acts, they are forever changed. The same should be said for your character. Growth is essential to a believable plot. 6. Give them a support system. When the proverbial shit hits the fan, teens turn to their friends before they turn to anyone else. So give her some people she can turn to for comfort, help, a reality check, or a swift kick in the ass. I try to make my supporting characters be the opposite of my main character. This person will look at things in a different way and offer up some different insight or solutions. 7. Give them determination. Stubbornness is always a great personality trait because it makes the main character move forward, but it can also add tension in areas where she may need to let go of things but refuses to. Determination, no matter what the motivation behind it, is always needed. 8. Make that personality explosive. In many cases, the person who has the gumption to get things done is the person who is a bit reckless at times, is maybe quick to anger, has a lot of sarcasm, and doesn’t care much what others think or say. While the main character doesn’t need all of these traits, a little bit of quirkiness can go a long way. Nobody wants to read a book with a boring, perfect main character. I’m sure I missed a few points along the way that other writers may depend on in their writing, but I think these traits can help build a character that you can be proud to have YA fans look up to.
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Samantha Buttrick
Author of "The Beast of Yorkshire Place" and "The Wasteland" Archives
October 2015
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