I read Frances FitzGerald's Harper's magazine essay on Young Adult fiction when it first came out (Sept. 2004) -- and it's interesting reading for anyone who reads, writes or publishes books for teenagers. I only just found it on the web, so I'm posting it now.
The essay is fascinating, but I think despite the ending that espouses adventure, chick lit, fantasy, etc.,FitzGerald sees the field of YA as largely consisting of problem novels -- that is, novels in which the agenda of the novelist is to address some painful issue teenagers might be encountering: pregnancy, drug use, physical abuse, stuff like that.
There are many great problem novels out there, and of course they exist. But I think they're only one part of a large field full of fantasy and comedy and romance and all the other things people like to read about no matter what their age.
It's easy to talk about problem books because they foreground an element of what makes a novel a young adult one rather than an adult one: there's a message that the adult writer is giving to the younger reader. True enough.
But the Mitford novels are meant to be inspriational and instructional, and so are all those memoirs about recovering from addiction and depression, and lots of other books where people learn to prioritize their families, or give up drinking, or whatever. I can't think of them at the moment, all these stories of personal growth, because I'm too busy reading about axe murderers and sex maniacs. But my point is, problem novels exist in the adult market, too -- they're just not called problem novels, and they may have a different kind of resolution or a different tone to their presentation than those published as YA.
It is difficult to say what constitutes teen fiction -- why is it teen fiction, when lots of grown-up fiction, from The Virgin Suicides to A Prayer for Owen Meany, is about teenagers? Focusing on the problem novel, to my mind, is a overly simple way of addressing the question. But read the article for yourself, and see what you think. It's really interesting, in any case.
--E