People like Maureen Daly

Maureen Daly (March 15, 1921 – September 25, 2006) was an Irish-born American writer who wrote the 1942 novel Seventeenth Summer while still in her teens. Originally marketed for adults, it described a contemporary teenage romance and drew a large teenage audience. It is regarded by some as the first young adult novel, and the market niche of young adult literature was not developed until the 1960s, more than 20 years later. At age 16, Daly also wrote the award-winning short story "Sixteen", which appeared in many anthologies.

Although Daly did not publish another novel for 44 years after Seventeenth Summer, she had a long career in journalism from the 1940s through the 1990s, working at the Chicago Tribune, Ladies' Home Journal, The Saturday Evening Post, and The Desert Sun. While at the Tribune, she wrote a popular syndicated advice column for teenagers that later was covered by her younger sister, Sheila John Daly. She also wrote nonfiction books for adults and teenagers as well as story books for children. In the 1980s and early 1990s, she wrote two more young adult novels dealing with themes of romance.