I miss being 14 years old.
Let me clarify: You could not pay me to repeat middle school. I do not miss puberty, gym class or whatever else I was worried about five years ago.
But sometimes, life then was just more fun. At the time, I was reading every young adult novel I could get my hands on, listening to trashy pop music and had recently discovered the world of Pinterest — hobbies which, the older I get, I realize have still captured my attention.
Other people seem to feel the same way. Over the past few years, the world has been hit in rapid succession with a Percy Jackson TV show, a "Shadow and Bone" adaptation and two new "Hunger Games" novels. Suddenly, it's as if the 2010s never left, and even if it's a cash grab, I love the feeling every time.
I first started to enjoy young adult novels and TV shows because they offered me a sense of possibility.
When I was 14, no matter how practical I thought I was, I still secretly wished that one day my group of friends might be tasked to go on a quest, that if I waited long enough, I might wake up and find myself with magic powers.
It didn't matter if this wasn't considered cool, because these stories had exhilarating plots and characters I could root for.
As teenagers themselves, most young adult protagonists struggled with insecurity as well. They were awkward, unsure of the future and still figuring out who they were.
Unlike these characters, the fate of humanity was not also in my hands, but I still saw parts of myself in them. The idea that there could be magic, adventure or even just something more in my life despite insecurity and flaws was an exciting alternative to my otherwise uneventful teenage existence.
Fourteen slipped away — and then 16 (somehow the preferred age for young adult characters), and then 18. There was no Hogwarts letter, no trip to Camp Half-Blood. I tried archery once and felt nothing like Katniss Everdeen.
Before I knew it, magic and adventure seemed almost unreachable.
Reading about people riding dragons seemed odd when I had to order Ubers to get anywhere. Seeing 12-year-olds with swords and prophecies became more concerning than inspirational. Watching a character determine the future somehow didn't feel the same when I had to figure out what to do after graduating college too.
It was as if, now that I had to make decisions which might actually impact the rest of my life, everything had gotten too serious for magic and adventure.
These stories still held a special, nostalgic place in my mind, but I considered young adult fiction to be a relatively closed chapter for me.
I would soon be proved wrong.
One of my first thoughts when I watched the new Percy Jackson TV series was that I wanted to be there with the main characters, just as I had when I was reading the books all those years ago.
This was closely followed by remembering that I was no longer Percy Jackson's age, and that hanging out with 12-year-old demigods in the woods was not something I should want, but I still couldn't shake the feeling.
READ MORE: 'Percy Jackson and the Olympians' reboot brings hope back to its original readers
The show was a reminder of a simpler, more fantastical period of my life — a revisit to a world where kids could be confused and make mistakes but still have magical abilities and successfully save the world before the school semester ended.
I was nostalgic for the feeling of seeing the world through the lens of possibility, and for the idea that my life could be like a fictional protagonist's, too — imperfect, yet exciting and meaningful.
A similar feeling returned when I read "Sunrise on the Reaping." "The Hunger Games" was one of the first series I read, which clearly pointed to deeper themes and meanings, that encouraged me to empathize with the struggles of another world.
While the material of the book was, of course, harsh, I had missed reading about difficult topics in an accessible way. "The Hunger Games" had interesting storylines and characters I cared about. Real life, or even adult novels, seemed much less forgiving.
READ MORE: Review: New 'Hunger Games' novels showcase the power of a prequel
Perhaps, in the end, it isn't that I miss being 14 years old and insecure, but that I miss a time when I could be insecure and grapple with questions about life almost without consequence or expectation.
And maybe it isn't that all of us want to be in middle school again, or to be fictional characters, but rather that we collectively wish for a life that is a bit more exciting and filled with possibilities, that gives us space to figure ourselves out.
Until then, though, I — and countless other twenty-somethings — will return to young adult fiction.
Besides, I think the 14-year-old in me will secretly always be waiting to discover that I have magic powers.
Edited by Abigail Beck, Sophia Braccio and Natalia Jarrett.
Reach the reporter at pkfung@asu.edu and follow @FungPippa on X.
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Pippa is a sophomore studying journalism and mass communication with minors in political science and German. This is her third semester with The State Press. She has also worked at Blaze Radio and the Los Alamos National Lab.
