First-Person POV vs. Third-Person POV: Which Should You Use for a Middle-Grade or Young Adult Story?

About fifteen years ago, I attended a children’s writing conference given by our state’s Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) chapter, and one of the guest speakers was an editor who now works for a major publisher and has his own imprint. At the time, he said that if you are submitting YA, it better be in first-person POV and MG better be in third. He even hinted that he would reject anything that didn’t fit those parameters.

He didn’t explain why he felt so strongly about his position, and for years I followed his advice without understanding why I should. After a while, it all felt natural and correct to write this way. But something still nagged at the back of my mind. Why does it feel natural? What makes these POVs work in these age groups?

After doing my own research, I’ve finally figured it out, though I had to pan through a lot of bad advice about POVs in general in order to strike gold. Even with the nuggets, I needed to melt them all down into one glimmering ring.

The Middle-Grade Reader

Younger readers are looking to discover who they are, what they believe in, and where they fit in. When a story is told in third-person, there is more opportunity for morality and ethics to be a focal point, for the character’s emerging philosophy to be front and center. In a first-person narrative, we lose that focus because all of this is rather subconscious for the MC. The MC simply thinks they are making a choice about a particular situation, not about what they are choosing as a guiding principle moving forward in their lives.

In first-person POV, the MC is able to leave out details or try to make themselves look better, behave better. Third-person narrators are in a position to tell the unvarnished truth. And with MG, you want that slight distance so readers can watch the larger ethical and moral struggles unfold without any filters. That third-person narrator, even if it is third-person close, is drawing the reader’s attention to situations that a first-person narrator might prefer to gloss over. Third-person is like being a fly on the wall, allowing readers to see the bigger picture, weigh options, and make decisions for themselves about whether a character’s action is right or wrong.

If they are in the character’s POV, it’s not as easy to see the big picture because the MC can try to justify their actions. But you want the MG reader to figure out the better path and say, “No, don’t let Billy cheat off your test because you’ll get in trouble and Billy will never learn!” If the story is in first-person POV, that fly-on-the-wall advantage disappears and the MC winds up dictating everything to the reader instead of allowing the reader to figure it out for themselves.

One other advantage to this POV is that being a fly on the wall helps to provide some distance that lets the reader feel smarter than the MC. “I never would have done such-and-such because I knew what would happen as soon as the MC made that choice.” Kids get to be the arbiter of right and wrong and feel as if they are in on something that even the MC isn’t aware of. That’s a powerful feeling for kids who are just starting to figure out their personal moral compass.

The Young-Adult Reader

In YA, most of the characters have already gone through the struggle of finding what they stand for. It is in YA stories where characters are tested. But unlike MG, these characters know they are being tested. They face obstacles to doing something they are called (or need) to do. In most cases, the character’s concrete desire in YA has to do with fulfilling their version of what is right.

Think of Katniss in HUNGER GAMES. All the events in this story have to do with Katniss protecting her sister, Prim. She does not want Prim to go into the arena, and she knows the she herself must survive the games in order to come home and continue protecting her sister. Every time she has to take a life in the arena, she struggles against what she knows is morally right, but she is fulfilling her sense that the larger good, saving Prim, is more important.

But Katniss also has flaws and makes a lot of questionable decisions. She ignores the advice that could give her advantages in the arena. She uses Peeta in order to gain sponsors. She gaslights him to say he should commit suicide so that she doesn’t have to kill him. How messed up is that?

But she rationalizes everything to herself in such a way that it all makes perfect sense to her. Because it is all in first-person, the reader is an active participant in the action. It all feels more immediate.

More mature readers don’t need the authoritative third-person to explain what is actually happening as opposed to what the protagonist says is happening, whether it is an accurate portrayal of events or not. In other words, these readers get it. They know right from wrong at this stage and they understand when a protagonist may be lying to themselves about their own actions. This allows the more mature reader to simultaneously feel as if they are immersed in the action and also understand the character’s motivations at a deeper level.

There is one other reason that first-person is popular for YA. If the narrator/protagonist is unreliable, the story can only be told in first-person. The ability for the protagonist to gloss over details or justify behavior is only a step away from flat out deceiving the reader in order to wind up with a major plot twist or reveal. If a story like this were told in third-person, the reader would cry foul and be completely justified. Third-person narrators are meant to be more objective, so what reason would the narrator have to deceive? But first-person narrators have every reason to deceive in these scenarios and the reader doesn’t feel cheated but rather impressed that they fell for the ruse. Rarely do we begrudge the unreliable narrator who fools us.

Of course, there are always exceptions to this “rule” of third-person for MG and first-person for YA. It always depends on the author’s goals for the manuscript and which voice is best suited to the story. So play around with the POV to discover which one may feel more authentic for your manuscript or your characters, and ask your critique group or beta readers for their impressions of the POV, too. If all else fails…

Jay Whistler is an introvert who edits in her Covid-free home office and writes in both first- and third-person. Find out more about her editing services here.