by Clare Callow

Created on: January 22, 2009

Every year, hundreds of newly adolescent girls open the pages of a teen romance for the first time. It will be a book that seemingly has nothing to offer them but pure, fantastical, mind candy: the thinking equivalent of junk food. Their fathers will sigh in exasperation, their peers will roll their eyes, but the girls will read.

Does this flight of fancy lead these girls to develop unrealistic expectations of the times ahead? Keep this question in mind, and read on.

Romance fiction is the secret shame of millions of women worldwide. Put under pressure, I will admit to being one of them. I occasionally shuffle between the covers of a Mills & Boon or a generic equivalent, and unlike any other book I read, will be hesitant to get it out in public. In my heart of hearts, I feel I am wasting my time by indulging in such silly books. Then I metaphorically slap myself upside the head, because the cause of this shame is purely societal. The shocking truth is: the world loves a romance.

Come on. You know it. I know it. Your dog knows it. Deep down, every grown adult goes all gooey inside when absorbing some sort of romantic story, whether it be the moment Bridget Jones stands in her underwear on a freezing street kissing Mr Darcy, or when Bruce Willis wraps his arms around whatever his love-interest-of-the-moment is while a villain's stronghold explodes in the background. We all love romance, because deep down we realise that sex is sex, but love is what will lead someone to look after you when you're old and dribbling. Engaging in romance is just another survival instinct.

That said, does teen romance fiction give teenagers an unrealistic view of life?

Absolutely. For a given value of 'unrealistic'. The hard fact is, fiction is just that - fiction. Every form of fantasy lets us engage in unreal worlds, and when we are young, we believe in them. Children have an unrealistic belief in friendly postmen and enthusiastic bus drivers. As they get older and experience the world, they drop this fantasy and take up others, replacing each corrected ideal with a new one. This goes on indefinitely, and adults are not immune - how many people think that a CSI must lead an exciting life of cool sophistication, rather than the reality of white coats, precision and repetition?

Teens, regardless of whether they read romances or not, will have unrealistic expectations of their partners, leading them to make mistakes and occasionally lose out in the process. This is not a bad thing. At worst, it will lead to a few tears. At best, it will lead to them looking for something emotional and deep in all of their relationships, searching for real connections instead of settling for whoever expresses interest. I personally wish them the best.

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