Theatrical, emotional responses are what teens are good at. When bad things happen, it's THE END OF THE WORLD. Life is Ruined. They will never love again. Remember? In writing for teenagers, it is important to keep in mind WHY adolescents react this way.
Steph Sinkhorn at Maybe Genius says "When we're young, we quite frankly don't have the experience under our belt to be able to say, "Yes, this terrible/embarrassing thing happened, but it was really no big deal in the long run and everyone moved on." There is no long run. There's only the here and now."
Teenage emotion is so over-the-top because teenagers are living in a constant state of new experiences and self-discovery. Screwing up can mean being permanently branded as someone they don't want to be. Bullies pick on the weak because they're in the midst of figuring out their own crap and they're taking it out on other people. A first relationship that leads to a first breakup is so soul-shattering because that's the only experience they have to compare anything to. Of course it feels like they'll never love again! They just fell in love for the first time!
In YA stories, melodrama is ramping up the emotion to get a response from the reader. OVERACTING, in other words.
How do we create a Protagonist who isn't an emotional whiner? Check out Sinkhorn's blog.
Maybe Genius's Managing Melodrama
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