I dug up my teacher alt just for this. YA gets a bad rap for a lot of reasons, but it’s also the primary means by which a lot of marginalized kids are able to see relatable representation in their schoolwork and in their journeys as readers. Yes, JK Rowling is a TERF and, yes, there was a trend last decade where all the most popular YA dystopian fiction books got made into a bunch of samey-feeling movie franchises. A lot of the hate for those came from a cultural contempt for the preferences of teenage girls, but that’s another thing. The movies were overdone by the end. Having a diverse selection of high-quality literature on display in school libraries has measurable benefits in kids’ self-esteem and desire to read. I have students who had never seen themselves in a book before coming across some relevant YA and coming to me asking for other stuff like it.