As a Youth Worker i have the fantastic privilege of hanging out with young people pretty much everyday - and this privilege means that i am able to ‘keep up to date’ with the manic and ever changing face of Youth Culture.

Music, film, Worldviews, media, they all effect Young people quite heavily and we’ve seen some pretty big ones over the years… but the latest one has given me quite a bit of thought when chatting to young people. The Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer has been an international success, a story about a young girl moving to a new school where she falls in love with a vampire which then spawns a massive story about identity, love, sex, teenage america etc.

Young girls in particular have taken to this series in a big way, at one time pretty much every 14+ girl in my church was reading it, all falling in love with the fictional vampire Edward. Instead of simply writing the books and films off - i decided to read the first book (i got to page 4 and fell asleep - literally) and i went to watch the film (i laughed and despaired at EVERYTHING) but to no avail….. this series is the worst thing since High School Musical!

However in my twitter/facebook/digg/internet filled life i came across a news story that confused me! See the picture above - someone has decided to release classic novels with ‘Twilight’esque style covers and small advertisements telling the would be reader that this classic novel is a favorite of the vampire and his human lover…. 

At first i was angry about this - this is a classic novel - it doesn’t need a teenage craze to rebrand it! But on the other hand is this a good thing? will readers of the Twilight series realize that its author was actually inspired by a true classic novel?!

Youth Culture is fascinating and always leaves me asking why? and What next?!?!