The other day I read an article from the Norwegian author, Ottar Grepstad, where he stepped forward with the following statement: “There are almost no biographies about a young person that are important. They are not important to our society”
In other words, Ottar is saying that young people don’t have an important voice. He’s basically writing off the importance of an entire generation, and that makes me frustrated. Why should the voices, feelings and lives of today’s youth matter less than those of someone 30 years older? Why do I have to wait until I’m 50 to write a book about the first quarter of my life, when it’s all so fresh in my memory right now. Do you not matter to society until you’re considered “grown up”? Do my words mean nothing? Should you, as a young adult, be forced to only read books written by someone from a completely different generation?
Wouldn’t it be amazing if I, or any other young writers, inspired teenagers and young adults to read more? If they pick up a book by themselves for the first time and it makes them want to read more? Books are amazing, and it’s so important that the younger generation opens up to them.
My book isn’t written by an adult speaking to the younger crowd – and that’s why it’s so important. It’s not a moralizing finger pointing at them, telling them what think, feel and do. It’s not a book meant to tell you how to live your life, or a reflection of everything I should have done better or differently. It’s supposed to talk about me, right now, feelings I’ve felt, for a generation that is growing up NOW so they can relate and learn. If I wrote a book 30 years from now about how my life as a young adult was, it wouldn’t be as relevant. I wouldn’t be able to write for the newer generation, and I wouldn’t be able to reach out to them.
I think it’s amazing that today’s youth have such a strong voice. But I guess it doesn’t matter what I think according to Ottar – I’m too young to know what I’m talking about after all.
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