ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the possibility that young adult (YA) chick lit, far from uncritically adapting the conventions of its adult counterpart for a younger audience, engages in negotiations with feminism that are specific to the experience of female adolescence. By giving shape to the encounter between contemporary feminist values and adolescence, the YA chick lit novel is helpful in highlighting the power differentials that exist between women and younger girls who employ feminist strategies to "come of age". The chick lit novel, as Stephanie Harzewski has noted, is "the most culturally visible form of postfeminist fiction" because it "adopts an a la carte tendency that selectively appropriates aspects of feminism into a primarily consumerist model". The presence of a metaphor is a sufficient feminist gesture; it suggests a familiarity with the way figurative language can be mobilized for political ends but lacks critical content.
