Teenagers, in need of nothing.

When rejected in love, loneliness can either kill us or makes us stronger. Right, this may sound exaggerated. But what is this dilemma if not a recurrent matter in adolescence? What can be better than a short story to show teenagers’ troubled minds? Written by American author Miranda July, Something That Needs Nothing is a short story included in her successful book No One Belongs Here More Than You. The story describes the days of an unnamed teenager girl who runs away from home with her best friend to begin a new life in the city of Portland.

This intense short story explores a teenage girl’s attraction and affection to her best female friend. Curiosity for sex, rejection in love, and loneliness, are some of the dilemmas that come along with the girls’ relationship.

Covering various types of texts such as novels, short stories and poetry, Young Adult Literature (YAL) is any fiction written and published for adolescents and young adults. Authors such as Robert C. Small Jr., Sara Herz and Donald Gallo go deeper in their explanation of YAL and talk about certain characteristics and themes connected to this area of fiction. Regarding the story, most of the topics introduced in Something That Needs Nothing are related to adolescents. Therefore, teenage readers may feel identified with the main character’s behavior as well as with the main character’s problems. In this sense, Something That Needs Nothing may be considered as a case of YAL.

Considering Robert Small’s list of YAL characteristics, Miranda July’s short story fits in the list perfectly. Among YAL characteristics, Small states two important ones: the main character is a teenager; and events and problems are related to teenagers. In the story, the narrator is the main character, an unnamed adolescent who has already finished high school but not long ago. Her main problem is that her affection for Pip, her best friend, is more than that of a friend. Notice how the main character falls apart when Pip announces that she is moving out with a new girl, “I could not let her leave the building. I ran down the hall and threw myself on her. She shook me off; I locked my arms around her knees. I was sobbing and wailing […] if she left, I would become mute, like those children who have witnessed horrible atrocities.” Idealizing a person is quite common in adolescence, and even more if one has a romantic crush. In the story, the main character idealizes Pip and cannot handle her absence at all.

When dealing with YAL, Herz and Gallo claim that there are many universal themes connected to this area of fiction. Family conflicts is just one of the many themes that the authors mention to be connected to YAL. In respect to the story, the two teenage characters feel relieved when leaving their homes from the very beginning of the story. Both characters face their families and get a different feedback from them. While the unnamed narrator decides to leave without uttering a single word, Pip receives an uninterested answer from her mother when she announces her departure. Her mother’s lack of interest can be seen in the next dialogue,

We’re going now, Mom.

Where?

To Portland.

Can you do one thing for me first? Can you bring that magazine over here?

The quote above gives us background information about the poor family communication between Pip and her mother, which is just one instance among the family conflicts. The unnamed narrator says that she has the opposite problem from her friend’s. Pip’s problem is that her mother would let her go with no major problem

What is more, Herz and Gallo mention that some YAL includes a variety of situational archetypes. An archetype is a typical character, an action or a situation that may represent certain universal patterns of human nature. In Something That Needs Nothing, the main character deals with the search of self. As it has been said before, the narrator is not able to manage Pip’s absence. After filling many applications to get a job, she ends up working in a peep show, a booth from which any person can see a live nude by paying money. In most of the story, the main character remains unnamed, but it is thanks (or maybe not) to her new job that the unnamed narrator is then referred to as Gwen, her fake name at the peep show. Interestingly, working in a peep show and wearing a wig are what make Pip recover interest on her old friend. So interested is Pip that she ends up making love to Gwen. The main character reflects upon her new job. She realizes that she has two options: she can keep Gwen and maintain Pip’s interest, or she can free herself from the new job which just gave her a hollow life.

Teenage character’s dilemmas, themes that are relevant for adolescents and an inner search for self are all characteristics and aspects that authors agree on when describing YAL. For all the stated, Miranda July’s short story connects with young adult readers, and that allows us to say that Something That Needs Nothing may be an adequate example of YAL.