The main characters in an earlier age of YA dealt with realistic adolescent dramas—like Judy Blume's struggling heroines—or slightly exaggerated ones—like the Wakefield twins in the Sweet Valley High books. But the most popular young adult characters today aren't just given adult rules, they fill wholly unique functions in their societies. Harry Potter is fated to face off with the dark wizard Voldemort. Katniss Everdeen volunteers to participate in an annual fight to the death to protect her sister, but she is turned into a potent political symbol by the adults in her life. Bella Swan may be quite passive, her power arising from her body rather than her actions, but she's still unique, and valuable. The Giver is squarely in this tradition: Jonas' job brings him honor, but it isolates him from his family and his peers, expanding his experiences and with them, his moral sensibility.

Being chosen requires that each of those characters take on responsibilities beyond what would be expected of them if they were ordinary teenagers. Harry runs an insurgent organization, studies magic, commits criminal acts, and leaves school a year early, forcing him to figure out how to support himself without food or shelter supplied by adults. Katniss first figures out how to survive in and manipulate a political system dominated by adults, then becomes a war leader and a political figure in her own right, negotiating the conditions of the revolution that happens around her. Bella takes on the responsibilities of marriage and motherhood. And Jonas, who has grown up in a community without choices, must learn the skills of decision, deceit, and judgment—and decide whether to act when he discovers the price his community pays to live without difference, without pain, and ultimately without beauty or honesty.

And even though these novels are fantasies, they ask realistic questions about what happens when children take on adult roles. Harry sees his friends tortured and killed—and it's the adults who coordinate the defense of Hogwarts who buy Harry the time he needs to defeat Voldemort. He may be chosen, but he can only be victorious in concert with others. Katniss can't handle the pressure of being a symbol, becoming erratic and ultimately withdrawing from the struggle. While the horrifying nature of Bella's pregnancy makes troubling assumptions about sex, and she's saved by magic rather than hard work, there's no question that Stephenie Meyer has Bella experience real, if temporary, consequences for her decisions. And Jonas has to face that he can't transform his community except by leaving it. Teenagers, it turns out, are still teenagers.

It might be easy to look at these defeats and compromises and assume that these novels validate helicopter parenting, that they prove that teenagers can't really handle the real world on their own. But instead, the biggest YA smashes of the day—and classics like Lowry's—emphasize that even when they fail or compromise, teenagers come to independent and important moral insights when they're forced to take responsibility and make decisions without adult support.