On Problematic Romances (& why we should stop writing them)
When I was thirteen, I discovered the popular writing platform, Wattpad, and fell immediately into the "teen fiction" tag for my next great read. I had started reading YA romance novels that summer and found myself hooked on each trope and cliche I could possibly become obsessed with. I was young, inexperienced, and since I had no real interactions with dating, sex, and relationships, my view of the aforementioned was shaped almost entirely by what I was reading. This, of course, is noteworthy because of the types of books I was drawn to. The fact of the matter is, I wanted a "bad boy" of my own. Now, if we're being frank, the arc of these books I enjoyed oh-so-much was pretty much the same thing regurgitated over and over again. Frequently, it featured an eligible bachelor with a world-class reputation for being a "player" (meaning, he was a hoe and probably had the clap or something but no one ever mentions the bad boy's STDs), his name was