Twilight and Tweens: Stephanie Meyers’ Gift to Girls Everywhere

The Twilight saga has sold over 40 million books in over 40 coutnries and has taken the tween world by storm. What is it that Stephenie Meyers was able to do to capture the hearts and minds of so many tweens? She did the following:

1. She made it something they could relate to. The main character of the Twilight books, Bella, is an insecure, slightly clumsy, and average girl who gets thrown into a new situation and is supposed to make the best of it. Tweens everywhere are dealing with very similar circumstances. Their bodies changing, their personalities forming, and their worlds becoming more complicated, and so they relate. It may not be vampires and mythical creatures that tweens face, but the social and romantic aspects of the book, as well as the emotional aspects of the insecurities, wishes, and desires that Stephenie Meyers captures in these stories is relatable to tweens. They eat it up.

Tweens all over the world are in love with these books.

2. She fulfills every tween girl’s fantasy. When a tween girl reads these books she naturally relates to, and thus identifies with Bella, the main character. Thus, what happens to Bella, and her story become possibilities in the minds of these tweens for their own lives. They see themselves being able to obtain and do what Bella obtains and does. Maybe not literally, but in much the same sense. So, when Stephenie Meyers lets this awkward, clumsy, average girl get the attentions of the two most attractive boys in the area, when she shows that it doesn’t matter how much money your family has, or who your friends are, or even what you are good at, that every guy in the school will like you, ask you to dances, and you will find true love, she subtly fulfills the wish of tween girls everywhere. She is telling them that it is possible for them to have this same outcome, and they want to believe it. Who doesn’t want two strong, protective, kind, and fun guys mooning over them and competing for their affections? In other words, she gives tween girls something to hope for, and sets it up in a way that it really seems possible.
3. She provides a fun escape. Twilight is an easy read with plenty of emotion, interesting events, and excitement to be fun for adults, teens, tweens, boys, girls etc. Thus, she provides something that holds appeal for just about everyone, which means that most tweens can get into the books, and enjoy escaping reality into this fantasy world for a time. This is an art that she has mastered, and in doing so, captured the tween world, and took it by story.

In addition to the book plot, character development, and overall wish fulfillment this book addresses, the movies take it up a notch providing idols to giggle over and swoon about.