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Introduction 3 womanhood, primarily through the control of girls. From what culturally we consider as beautiful, to how we construct virginity as worth—­and have for hundreds of years—to constructs regarding working ­ women and motherhood or what we consider appropriate be­hav­ior, media plays a significant role in defin- ing female pursuits and activities in terms of what is acceptable feminine be­hav­ ior. This means they play a significant role in defining “girl” as we see girls as a monolith. Even though YA lit­er­a­ture has no prob­lem with repre­sen­ta­tions of girls, I am left with the question: What girlhood are they representing? This, I think, ­ matters. YOUNG ADULT LIT­ER­ A ­ TURE YA lit­er­a­ture’s stated purpose is to tell stories for and about teens. In ­doing so, it is representative of how we understand the experience of being a teen. YA lit­er­a­ture suggests who teens might be while providing stories that help make sense of their world. At their best, and maybe even at their worst, ­them these stories provide space for readers to connect, to interrogate their own lives, and to build knowledge of the ­ others within the world. It is ­because of this that repre­sen­ta­tion, and the pre­sen­ta­tion of characters, ­matter in ­these stories. In understanding how YA lit­er­a­ture contributes to repre­sen­ta­tion, we should ask questions such as: • How are demographic categories represented? • What are the stories ­ these repre­sen­ta­tions tell? • How do they allow us to enter into the world and interrogate our place within it? ­ These questions are more difficult to answer than just counting the ­ people of color, or gay characters, but they are more impor­tant questions of repre­ sen­ta­tion. Yes, we need more diverse books. However, how we define diverse needs to respond to the question of what stories we are telling. We need to reach beyond settling for who is in the stories that we tell and that we read. Rather, we need to ensure ­ those stories are rich, multilayered, complex, and representative of a wide variety of experiences. It is not nearly enough to have a character of a dif­fer­ent race, sexuality, ethnicity, gender, ­etc., if we tell sto- ries that perpetuate ste­reo­types, or do not provide depth and richness to the characters’ experiences. Asking what story is being told requires not just ask- ing one to describe the plot, it is asking one to examine the story of repre­sen­ ta­tion whose story? What is the implicit story? I hesitate to use the concept of message, as in the YA world, message carries a par­tic­u­lar moral weight that is problematic and has historical roots that the category must combat peri- odically, or even daily, but yes, we should ask—­what is the message? Not in the obvious sense of message as lesson, but what are the cultural messages of the story? As librarians, teachers, and authors, we position YA lit­er­a­ture as represen- tative of the voice of youth. Implicit in this belief is that it is an au­then­tic voice.