Teenage years are like the teething period of the soul. They are inevitably painful, and the uniformity of that pain makes them boring. Not everybody gets to hit their teenage years in their actual teens. Some people are terrorized into not even attempting to grow their own soul until they are 30 or 50. Or ever. And if you have to wait that long, the process becomes atrociously hurtful.
I hate reading about teenagers. A good depiction of teenage life is the most boring one. If it’s less boring, then it’s not realistic. The teenagers in Tana French’s novel The Secret Place are realistic but that’s what makes them so soporific. French is a good author but this is a subject that can’t be rescued. No matter what you do, it’s coming out just like the billion and one similar novels written before you.
Clarissa's Blog 
“I hate reading about teenagers”
Did you always or just after specializing for a time in the Bildungsroman as a genre?
Is one of the reasons you like Jane Eyre so much because she thoughtfully jumped from 10 or so to 20 or so with no mention of her teenage years?
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IIRC, Jane Eyre was written when there was no concept of “teens.” In addition, she spent her teen years in a repressive boarding school/prison for poor girls and both of her parents were dead. It’s hard to rebel or separate from your parents when that happens.
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Yes, reading the hundred or so Bildungsromane definitely didn’t help. 🙂 People still say, “It’s a Bildungsroman! You need to read it!” And it’s the exact opposite: I SO don’t need to read it.
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