Young Adult | featured news

Actor Jason Segel has written a series of three young adult novels, based on a script he wrote when he was 21, he revealed at a Q&A following a screening of Forgetting Sarah Marshall in New York. "It's about kids facing their biggest fears, that's all I can tell you," he said.

Has Christian Grey been dethroned as the steamiest Edward Cullen-inspired character? Beautiful Bastard by Christina Lauren (which is the pen name of writers Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings) is the latest Twilight fan fic-turned-novel (formerly known to more than 2 million online readers as The Office)--but don't expect it to be the same BDSM-filled fantasy. Bookish breaks down what you can expect and what you definitely won't see in Beautiful Bastard--and how it differs from blockbuster bestseller Fifty Shades of Grey.

As teenagers demand independence and eventually move out, they’re not always quick to cut the cord when it comes paying their own cell phone bill. Among 620 parents with 18- to 35-year-old children, more than 40 percent of those surveyed said they still pay for their kids’ cellphone service, and 29 percent were still doing so even if their children no longer lived at home.

A record number of U.S. counties - more than 1 in 3 - are now dying off, hit by an aging population and weakened local economies that are spurring young adults to seek jobs and build families elsewhere.

"There's no magic formula," author says, but many factors in popularity of fantasy novels. With more than 22 millioncopies in print worldwide of her two fantasy series, The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices, author Cassandra Clare might be considered an expert on fiction that appeals to teens.

Colleen Hoover's Hopeless, a self-published mature young adult novel about the darker side of sex, enters the list at an eye-popping position: No. 2. Hoover's reaction? "This entire experience has been surreal," she tells USA TODAY. Hoover had two books on the list last year: Point of Retreat, which reached No. 31 in July, and Slammed, which peaked at No. 17. Hoover says she turned down the chance to have Hopeless published by a major house and opted for self-publishing. It's obviously working.

Across the country, tens of thousands of unemployed young people, many with college credits or work histories, are struggling to house themselves in the wake of the recession.

The story of 2012 in publishing was the story of "Fifty Shades of Grey," in more ways than one. E L James' erotic trilogy was easily the year's biggest hit, selling more than 35 million copies in the U.S. alone and topping bestseller lists for months. Rival publishers hurried to sign up similar books and debates started over who should star in the planned film version. Through James' books and how she wrote them, the general public was educated in the worlds of romance/erotica, start-up publishing and "fan fiction."

More than a third of young adults live in someone else's home, a segment that has grown dramatically since the recession began in 2007 but is starting to inch down -- a hint of an improving economy.

More than half of all teens and young adults infected with HIV, the AIDS virus, are unaware that they're infected.