All About YA

What is Young Adult?

• What Does "Young Adult" Mean? - The Atlantic
• What is Young Adult Literature? - teacher Becca Rackley
• How Young Adult Fiction Came of Age - The Atlantic
• Young Adult Lit Comes of Age - Los Angeles Times
• More Than Just Teen Characters and Love Triangles - author MB Muhall
• More Than Just Vampires and Wizards - Kimberly Morgan
• Are You Reading YA? - Clear Eyes, Full Shelves
• Trends and Issues in Young Adult Literature - text book sample (pdf)

How does it differ from Middle Grade?

• Middle grade versus young adult - agent Mary Kole
• Middle grade versus young adult - agent Michael Stearns
• Five Fast Differences Between YA and MG 
• Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Middle Grade - agent Michael Bourret and editor Molly O'Neill

How does it differ from adult literature?

• The Difference Between YA and Adult - author/former agent Nathan Bransford
• YA versus Adult - agent Natalie Lakosil
• YA vs Adult: What's the Difference? - author Susan Dennard
• YA Disguised As Classics - YALSA
• Food For Worms, Lads - author Stephanie Kuehn

What is "New Adult"?

• See our Genre page.

Is YA real literature? Is it okay for adults to read it?

• The Value of Young Adult Literature - Michael Cart for YALSA
• The Power of Young Adult Fiction (series) - The New York Times
• Lessons and Lives: Why Young Adult Literature Matters - Gary M. Salvner, ALAN keynote
• Why YA In The Classroom - Amanda Margis at YALSA
• YA Inferior?

• The Kids' Books Are All Right - The New York Times
• The Monsters In Us All: In Defense of YA Literature - author Ilsa Bick, MD 
• In Defense of YA - Aimee Lucido 
• In Defense of YA Literature - author Donald Seymour 
• Research: Our Defense Begins Here - Gerry McBroom (link to JStor preview)
• Young Adult Fiction Changes Lives - author Maureen Johnson (video at The Guardian)
• A Message to My Adult Readers - author Malinda Lo
• In Defense of YA-Reading Adults - GalleyCat
• Are You Reading YA Lit? You Should Be - librarian Gretchen Kolderup

• Why YA? - Karen at Attack the Stacks (complete with sloth!)
• Top Ten Reasons YA is Awesome - author Kate Hart
• Why YA Is Such Great Reading - Sarah at Girls In The Stacks
• The Real Reason I Read YA - blogger Anna Heinemann

YA BLOGS

Debut Groups

• The Lucky 13s (2013)
• Friday the Thirteeners (2013)
• Class of 2k13 (2013)
• The Apocalypsies (2012)
• Brave New Words (2012 Science fiction)
• The Nightstand (2012 Paranormal and thrillers)
• Class of 2k12 (2012)
• The Elevensies (2011)
• Class of 2k11 (2011)
• The Tenners (2010)
• Class of 2k10 (2010)
• The Debutantes (2009)
• Class of 2k9 (2009)
• Class of 2k8 (2008)
• Class of 2k7 (2007)
• League of Extraordinary Writers (Dystopian, various years)
• Debut Author Challenge - hosted by The Story Siren

YA Group Blogs

• ADR3NALIN3: The dark side of teen fiction
• Adventures in YA and Children's Publishing: The road to publication? I'd rather have the chicken pox.
• Boys Don't Read: Bryan, Steve, Jeff. Young adult writers.
• The Contemps: Readers and writers passionate about contemporary YA fiction
• Diversity in YA: Celebrating diverse stories in YA
• The Enchanted Inkpot: A community for writers and readers of MG and YA fantasy
• First Novels Club: Adventures in writing, reading, networking, and the rest of life
• Gay YA: Forum, blog, and fansite dedicated to everything gay in YA 
• Got YA: An eclectic group of YA writers
• Guys Lit Wire: Bringing the attention of good books to guys who might have missed them
• Honestly YA: Six authors, one love
• Ink and Angst 
• Intergalactic Academy: Uniting readers of YA science fiction across seven star systems
• Love YA Lit: YA book reviews, guest posts, interviews, and commentary
• MiG Writers: Writing for MG and YA readers
• Noble Young Adult: Books in all-sub-genres for readers 18-24
• Novel Novice:  Dedicated to showcasing Young Adult literature, encouraging reading and promoting education.
• Oasis for YA: Founded by aspiring authors, we want to create a relaxing sanctuary amongst the often dry, harsh reality of writing, editing, and querying. 
• Operation Awesome: Striving to achieve awesomeness, one word at a time.
• Sisters In Scribe: 3 YA writers on the road to publication
• Sleuths, Spies, and Alibis: MG and YA mystery writers
• Teen Fiction Cafe: The ultimate YA author hangout
• Teen Shiver: Texas YA Authors
• Teen Writers Bloc
• Ultimate YA Reading Group: Organization that promotes young adult literature and reading
• The YA5
• YA Bound: Dedicated to the promotion of Young Adult 
• YA Confidential
• The YA Curator: We wade through the slush to bring you the best YA Indie titles.
• Y{A}? Cuz We Write!: YA-writing cousins Quita and Pam
• YA Fresh: Authors Kelly Parra and Tina Ferraro team up to chat about YA
• YA Highway: Nomadic novelists explore fiction's most exciting age group: young adult.
• YA Indie: Shared by independently-published YA authors and book bloggers
• The YA Lit Six: 
• YA Muses: Miscellaneous musings of 5 writers for children and young adults
• YA Outside the Lines: YA novelists pushing the boundaries of the genre and writing from the heart
• YA Rebels: Daily YA vlogs
• The YA Sisterhood: Three sisters (and some honorary ones) share a love of YA literature. 
• YA or STFU: Young adult literature without apology
• YAtopia: Eight writers passionate about Young Adult literature in all shapes and sizes
• YA Warehouse: Three YA writers who dish about the nuts and bolts of writing 
• List of group blogs and sites on Twitter

Other Cool Sites

• Dear Teen Me: Teenagers of the world, Dear Teen Me is for you.
• Forever Young Adult: A site for YA readers who are a little less Y and a bit more A.
• Kidlitosphere Central: Huge list of YA blogs
• Mundie Moms: Founded a place to talk about our love of the Mortal Instruments Series, it grew into a place to discuss YA books and more.
• Pub(lishing) Crawl: Authors and industry professionals who blog about all things writing, publishing, and books! 
• Readergirlz: Literacy and social media project for teens, awarded the National Book Award for Innovations in Reading
• Reel YA: YA fiction + teen movies = awesomeness. 
• Teen Ink: Magazine, website & books written by teens since 1989
• TeenReads
• YA Audio Book Addict: Heard any good books lately?  
• The YA Blogosphere: YA book blog directory
• YA Books Central
• YA Lit: Book release dates
• YA Lit Chat
• Young Adult Magazine
• Write On Teens: A site for teen writers and readers

There are far too many awesome YA sites for us to make a comprehensive list (we didn't even try to round up all the great review blogs) but we'd be delighted to compile links in the comments:
Please link yourself and your favorites!