This week, my mind has been on teenagers. This is partly because of the disturbing reports that students at Utumishi Girls School allegedly planned and set part of their school ablaze. The incident has generated disbelief and endless speculation.
But beyond the immediate shock lies a deeper question that deserves my attention: what does this tell us about the world of today’s teenager? Allow me to look beyond the flames and examine this restless and often misunderstood stage of life and the role literature can play in helping young people navigate its uncertainties and contradictions.
What characterises this stage in life? Teenagers are restless, curious, impulsive and at times rebellious. They constantly test boundaries and question authority. It is a stage when young people ask difficult questions about the structures that govern society, which we ignore at our own peril. They seek to define their identities and, in some cases, aspire to lifestyles that may not align with adult expectations. They challenge values that previous generations have long taken for granted, but above all, they are searching for meaning.
The tragedy is that while teenagers are searching for answers, society is often too busy lecturing them to listen. Yet what they need more than aanything else is guidance. They need help to navigate the complex journey from childhood to adulthood. One of the most effective ways of offering that help is through good literature that speaks directly to their experiences and fears.
Teenagers make up about 22 per cent of the population—roughly one in every five Kenyans. This is a sizeable readership for writers. It is therefore no surprise that newspapers, television stations and digital platforms dedicate significant space to content targeting this age group.
Looking back on my teenage years, I can only conclude that every generation of young people has its own concerns. The issues that preoccupied teenagers in the 1970s and 1980s may not resonate with today’s youth. I grew up mainly on American thrillers during the Cold War era. In retrospect, literature was never entirely innocent.
America used popular culture to project its values across the world. We, the children of the developing world, became participants in a global contest whose rules we barely understood. In many of those novels, the heroes were American while the villains were often associated with America’s ideological rivals. The good guys won and we admired them. Without realising it, many of us adopted American characters as role models. Locally, books written specifically for teenagers were relatively scarce. Although Kenyan publishers have made commendable efforts to produce literature for teenagers, there is still considerable room for improvement.
Social media
Today’s teenagers face challenges very different from those of earlier generations. They live in a world shaped by smartphones, social media, artificial intelligence and constant streams of digital content, some of it harmful.
Technology has transformed how they communicate and consume entertainment. For writers to reach them, adaptation to these realities and new platforms is essential. Yet one thing remains unchanged: good stories will always find readers.
The first rule of writing for teenagers is simple: you cannot write for them without understanding them. If you are no longer a teenager but wish to reach this audience, you must study them closely; their psychology, their interests, fears, aspirations and frustrations. It is no easy task. The universal principle of writing is simple: you can only write effectively for people you genuinely understand and care about. To write for teenagers, therefore, you must first ask whether you truly care about their well-being.
When writing for teenagers, I let a group of them in my circle read my manuscript before it reaches a publisher. Their feedback helps refine the work. Many writers overlook this step and produce books that fail to connect with their audience.
Teenagers quickly detect insincerity; they know when an author is speaking to them, and when one is speaking down to them.
For me, writing for teenagers begins with memory. I reflect on my adolescence: the mistakes I made, the adventures I undertook, the fears that kept me awake at night, and the lessons I learned the hard way. Many of these experiences still resonate with young people today. I then transform them into stories that illuminate the lives of others
Any serious writer should remember that teenagers ask difficult questions about friendship, identity, love and relationships. They grapple with peer pressure, mental health challenges, substance abuse, crime and violence. Some face harmful cultural practices such as female genital mutilation, while others struggle with strained relationships with parents and teachers. These are legitimate subjects for teenage literature.
There is one final lesson every writer should remember: the quickest route to failure is to burden teenage readers with preachy messages. Teenagers have little patience for sermons disguised as stories. They want excitement, suspense, humour and believable characters. If a story carries wisdom, it should emerge naturally from the narrative.
Adolescence is a powerful and complex stage of life, marked by energy, imagination and occasional recklessness. Writers have a responsibility to guide young people through this journey. Through our stories, we should help teenagers make sense of themselves and the world around them. We may not solve every problem they face, but we must help them find meaning and direction in life.
