Love You, Hate You, Really Like You

Do you remember what it was like to be a tween? When your passion for something ebbed and flowed to ridiculous heights and lows, switching in an instant?

I do.

Not because my memory is good. Hell, I can't remember what I had for breakfast yesterday. But because I live it daily with my oldest Princess.

Twelve year olds have the capacity to be incredibly loving creatures. They'll gush "luv uuuuuuuuu <3 <3 <3" all over their Myspace comments to one another. And then, seriously, by the end of the day they're like, "God, I hate such and such. She gets on my nerves."

Don't bother pointing out that they'd hearted such and such a few hours ago. A) it won't matter and B) a few hours ago they did love such and such and now, at this moment, they really do hate such and such.

The passion with which they love and hate is both fascinating and frightening!

It's funny. At my age, whenever I run into an issue ripe with drama I'll blow it off with an eye roll and a "Life's too short for this." But for tweens and teens, the drama is their life.

Even though my head spins trying to keep up with the daily BFF roster, I admire their willingness to bare their feelings so publicly. Soon enough it'll be uncool and uncouth to cry, scream or laugh out-loud.

Whenever I'm asked why I write YA, the best answer I can come up with is - I really love writing for teens.

But the more truthful answer is, I love escaping into that part of myself that understands life isn't just full of drama, the drama in life is life!