Asexual Characters in YA Fiction

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My last post, with author Tiffany Rose, brought up the topic of asexuality, which might not mean much to everyone. Therefore, I thought it was important to share this post from YALSA about asexual characters that have been featured in YA novels. You can check out the article here and learn a bit more about asexuality as well as some book titles that are trying to bring it more into the mainstream.

The Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy by Laini Taylor is mentioned, as well as Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld, just to name two. What I also really appreciate about this article is that they include a variety of links at the end under Resources so that you can go and read more about asexuality. I won't go too into the topic on here because I know there is a variety of components and one person identifying as asexual doesn't mean the next person who identifies as such will have the exact same outlook on it.

I know one person in my personal life who identifies as asexual. It does not mean they do not have sexual urges, but rather, they do not feel sexually attracted to anyone in their life. Whereas the majority of people (gay, straight, etc.) are sexually attracted to certain people, this person I know does not have that type of attraction. They can find someone good looking and like their personality and they do want close relationships, but sex isn't part of that. At least, not right now. It would probably take a special person, and even then, it probably wouldn't be a large component of the relationship. Like I said, this is the person I personally know, but that does not mean all people who identify as asexual have these same ideas or experiences.

What are your thoughts about the books mentioned? Do you know any books, YA or not, that feature asexual characters?

-Lauren