People have been falling in and out of love since the beginning of time and telling stories about it just as long. Think Romeo and Juliet. For young people, love often first comes at a time when they are already awhirl with conflicting emotions. Books that con­tain a romantic element can help them make sense out of their own love life or lack of one.

"As long as humans experience emotion, romance will play a role in our reading," explains Karen Grove, Senior Editor of Har­court Books San Diego. "This is especially true for the teen reader who is just beginning to experience romance. Romances allow teens to experiment with feelings without fear of rejection, being hurt, or harmed. It offers teens a glimpse of different ways to han­dle real life situations they may come up against; ways to socialize; ways to express their feelings; even ways to avoid certain situa­tions. And it helps teens to see that the feelings they may be expe­riencing are universal; they're not alone. This is something that I believe is very important; it gives validity to their thoughts and feelings."

David Gale, Editorial Director at Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, says, "Some readers today, like some readers of yes­terday, and I'm sure, some readers of tomorrow, want to explore the emotions they are going through and anticipate what may happen to them in the future. Romantic involvements are a part of teens' lives, so they should be a part of their literature"

In the past, sweet stories that focused almost totally on the romance were very popular. Today a romance could easily be braided into a mystery or fantasy or be set a thousand years into the future.

According to Susan Knopf, Senior Vice President of Parachute Publishing, "Readers of all ages respond to romance and look for it from a variety of sources. We try to acknowledge the power of romance in the books we do for teens and adults."

Romances today may be less sweet, turning to darker or offbeat themes, but they will always appeal to some teen girls in their more innocent form as well.

Grove says, "I think romance will always be popular with teens, though I believe the genre has changed dramati­cally over the years. Gone are the sim­ple, sweet romances and in their place are stories that are more multilayered, with twists and various other issues that often play as much of a part, or even a greater part, than the romance itself."

Axford continues: "The Christian market also has a very unique slant to romance for teens. While the market does not discourage it entirely, it does encourage teens to focus on friendships rather than romance."

Cullinane adds, "What is key for us is that the story be well-told and reflec­tive of the reality of the world it is por­traying. Romantic stories between two teenage boys or two teenage girls are as real and valid and appropriate as any other."

Parameters
But how much is too much when writ­ing about love, sex, and relationships for teens? According to Knopf, "Any ele­ment of a story—romance, language, degree of scariness—can be elemental to a story or extraneous. In a sense, the story itself dictates what is appropriate and what is not."

"This really depends on how we envision the readership," says Lexa Hillyer, Editorial Assistant at Harper-Collins. "More nontraditional issues are appropriate for older teen readers, but in general we like to keep the content as accessible to a wide range of readers as possible, while still making it unique and intriguing?'

Story is still all-important to editors. While romance is a very distinct genre in some ways, it still can't be forced into standing alone. And romance is also simply an element in other genres, other storytelling forms. The romantic elements that are appropriate and nec­essary must flow naturally within the remainder of the story. Some publish­ing houses have limitations on what can be included —such as explicit sex­ual involvement—but much is depend­ent on the needs of the story line. Christian publishing houses, for instance, have definite parameters.

"Each book is so different in its tone, message, audience, and setting that it's nearly impossible to say what is and isn't appropriate in a book," adds Grove. "If the emotions, actions, and consequences are real—if they take into account the background of the character, the time period, the set­ting, the audience that will read it—then the romantic elements will follow naturally. If you censor a book in lan­guage or content when that language and content are appropriate to the set­ting, characters, and situation, then you have lost your authenticity Your read­ers won't believe in the story. Yet, if your story rings true without being graphic, then I think it's best to leave the graphic elements out. Your audi­ence will be much wider and a read­er's imagination often fills things in with what feels right or appropriate to them personally."

Knopf shares this story. "Earlier in my career, I edited romance fiction for a big paperback publisher, and one of the problems that I often encountered was the tendency for writers to sepa­rate love scenes from the story line. The effect was that the story would stop dead, then there'd be a love scene, then the story would resume. Integrat­ing the story into the love scenes, and the romance into the story, makes the book a more satisfying read."

"One pitfall is bringing up any of these things in a blase manner," says Hillyer. "Young teens often approach our books during a time of curiosity and discovery—many ideas about love, sex, or relationships may be new and surprising and we try to make sure the characters in the books are working through them so readers can too. Many of our books with romantic elements involve first kisses, but even in less innocent books it's nice for the characters to reveal lots of details about their experiences and their feel­ings, because younger readers are less likely to make assumptions (or would­n't necessarily know what assumptions to make) than a more mature reader who already gets what's going on."

"Writers have a tendency to idealize and romanticize when in actuality what makes a good read is realizing that everyone's love life (male, female, gay, straight, old, young) is stupid, thrilling, messy, transformative, exhaust­ing, ecstatic, ridiculous, delirious, and ordinary," adds Cullinane.

Axford reminds writers to remem­ber their audience. "Teens don't process the world through the same eyes. They aren't necessarily able to make the same choices adults can make in regard to future conse­quences. The adult dating experience should not be the teen dating experi­ence. Our culture today continues to push kids younger and younger to be adults earlier and earlier."

"We've seen a more accurate reflec­tion of what real teens are like, how they talk, what they actually say and do. We'd like to see even more of this realism and less of a naive or moralistic slant on teen life," says Hillyer.

"Stories are becoming more gritty and edgy, though they still having a romantic element," says Grove. "Characters are dealing with larger issues—illness, criminal acts, fear, dysfunc­tional families^—while the romance is relegated to the background of the issues. This doesn't mean that the romance is not important. I think kids actually read for the romance, but it becomes part of a whole picture."

"I look for great characters—characters I can hear speak to me, characters with strong voices, characters I could easily imagine walking down a street," says Grove. "If a writer can capture a character, all other elements, in my opinion, can be worked out. You can put that character in any setting, any sit­uation, and know how he or she will react. If a reader can make that necessary emotional connection with a character, you can take that reader anywhere."