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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/44992
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/44992
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Coming of Age is about becoming an adult. This is often for young adults the transition to a sexualized person; being interested in sex and romance, knowing what it is about, perhaps experiencing sexual attraction for the first time.

Anthropologically speaking, we see the same story in apes and other animals: The young reach an age where they rebel against their parents. They want to strike out on their own. In humans, you will see this kind of rebellion starting about the 5th grade, often a year or two _before_ sexual puberty begins. But grade school teachers know that somewhere between 4th and 5th grade (ages 10 or 11) is when the boys start "showing off", and the girls start "whisper circles".

But becoming an adult can be much larger than just becoming aware of one's sexual attributes, or discovering sex dreams or orgasms. It can involve new ways of thinking, like questioning the wisdom of one's elders. It can be learning to decide for yourself. It can mean doing things in secret and keeping secrets, it can be bonding with a group more strongly than with your parents or siblings. In short, it can be about becoming independent, and seeking experiences which you know your parents do not approve (e.g. smoking pot, watching pornography).

Coming of Age doesn't have to be a single experience covered in a book; that isn't how it works in real life. Humans are not actually physically done developing their brain until past the age of 22, and we all know there are plenty of people between the ages of 16 and 22 that are, to all appearances, sexually developed as adults, but still ruled by emotions and behaving impulsively and carelessly; NOT like sober adults (even if they are engaging in sexual acts, getting high and drunk, etc).

So whatever advancement toward adulthood you accomplished in the first book; there should be plenty of other advancements toward adulthood left in sequels. There is still a wild phase left to cover, that many people experience in the first years of college, when they are first out on their own with no parents to stop them, and legally allowed to do anything adults do. That is a whole new discovery phase, and it can be interesting to cover as well.

The "New Adult" genre follows the "Young Adult". The distinguishing feature of New Adult is that it appeals to an audience of roughly 18 to 26 or so; which is basically the age group of the single adult on their own, more or less before marriage/commitment but navigating their way toward that. In the USA at least, unlike the YA market, this often involves actual sex and sexual awareness (the average age of voluntary loss of virginity for women in the USA is age 16.5; for men it is age 17.5 (female virginity is typically lost with males older than the woman)).

There are also issues of responsibility; whether the character has a job or attends college, they have no parent to keep them on track, and college professors don't usually fulfill that role either. You show up to class or you don't, I will pass or fail you based on your tests, projects and homework. So they can get in trouble on failing to pay bills, speeding or driving drunk, sleeping through their alarm and failing to get to class, breaking rules at school or on the job, any number of things they can do wrong.

Original score: 7