Medical Injustices: Young Adult Literature Brings Them to Light

Overview: The term, “young adult” has a very loose definition. Some say it is only teenagers. Some say it can reach up to thirty year olds. The official definition is, “A person in their teens or early twenties” (Google), but one thing that can be agreed upon is that this period of life is a very rough one. People are just figuring out who they are, what they like to do, who they like and who they don’t like, who they can trust and who to not turn your back to. But most importantly, it is a period of growth and learning. At the early stage of young adults, many people try to control what these young people learn and what they read and watch and see on social media. But learning should be done without boundaries, and that is exactly what young adult literature does. It offers a way to encourage learning about any and all subjects. But sadly, many schools put blocks on these books because of the difficult subjects these books hold such as racism and rape. Many teachers and parents don’t want to expose their children to these horrid subjects, but these topics need to be taught. A change cannot be made without any knowledge. This age group has fresh minds craving information and by giving them this knowledge, they can grow with it and make a difference. One of these topics include racism. More specifically: racism in the medical field. Author\u27s reflection: My name is Korinne Minton and I am a current P1 pharmacy student at the Wegmans School of Pharmacy at St. John Fisher College. As much as I love chemistry and medicine I have a fondness for writing. In my research writing class our main topic of focus was young adult literature and for the final paper, Professor Barry said to connect it to our majors. As a pharmacy major it was difficult to find relevant literature to write about. I had to think back to previous books I had read and I was able to come up with an idea. The two books were “Fever 1793” by Laurie Halse Anderson and “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot. Both talked about the racial discrepancies in the medical field and I was able to take the idea from there. I want to thank my professor, Mrs. Maureen Barry, for pushing me to stick with my idea and helping me create one of my best papers and being a big supporter