We are always wondering about this term and I know I have talked about on this blog numerous times:

Why is it called YA anyway? And who decided what was YA and what wasn’t?”

If you ever wondered how this term got started, then check out this interesting NYPL (New York Public Library) article on the subject. Interesting enough, the term was started by librarians, a NYPL librarian to be more exact:

In 1906,  Anne Carroll Moore became the Director of Work with Children for The New York Public Library. As she was busy revolutionizing services to children and children’s rooms all over the city, she knew that there had to be a way to keep children, who weren’t quite adults yet, coming to the public library and not let all her hard work for children be for naught. It’s for these reasons, in 1914 that she hired Mabel Williams, a young librarian from Somerville, Massachusetts. Mabel was working as a reference librarian and collaborating with local high schools and Anne wanted her to do the same thing, only on a much bigger scale, at NYPL. Mabel began working with schools and inviting classes into branches and finally in 1919 she was appointed to Supervisor of Work with Schools and her groundbreaking work with young people (aka teens) began. Her official title (“Supervisor of Work with Schools and Young People”) wouldn’t happen until 1948.”

To read the full article, click here.