Imagine you’re a young girl, about 12 or 13, just starting to be exposed to the whole idea of love and relationships. One evening, you are scrolling through TikTok and stumble across a video of a girl reviewing a romance book, enthusing over a perfect guy, relationship, and characters.

It’s got a colorful cover with cartoon-style figures and glowing reviews. You decided to give it a try, so with your saved-up pocket money, you buy it from the local bookshop. Your parents are encouraging, all too glad that you’re reading instead of wasting time on your phone.

Excited, you begin the book, which was marketed to you as a young adult sweet romance comedy; however, instead, you are reading an adult novel, with explicit sex scenes, twisted characters, and male leads with morally grey intentions.

You feel confused, unsure about why people thought the story was sweet. But after all, you’re just 13, maybe this is what relationships are meant to be like. So, you keep reading, before you know it, you’re reading books that are getting progressively more explicit and graphic, and slowly they begin to twist your perception of sexuality, relationships, and men. 

Growing Demand for Romantic Novels 

It is not a secret that in recent years, there has been a large increase in both the creation and market for romance books, especially those with explicit content. 

According to Nielsen BookScan Australia and as reported by The Courier Mail, in Australia alone, romance sales have increased by 23 percent in 2023 and by a huge 83 percent in 2022. Overall, there has been a 253 percent increase in the sales of romance books compared to 2019. Romance is clearly the best-selling book genre, generating over 1.4 billion dollars yearly. In the 12 months up to May of 2023, 39 million printed romance copies were sold, which is a 50 percent increase from the prior year. 

The purpose of this essay is to highlight the issues that can arise when young women consume sexually explicit content. Research shows that 82 percent of romance readers are women, and while more men are starting to read romance, the majority of romance readers remain women, which is why they are the focus of this piece. 

Sexual Content in Books – Examples 

An extremely popular book published in 2025 is Onyx Storm, a romantic fantasy by Rebecca Yarros. It made history as the best-selling adult novel in recent years, selling over 1 million copies within the first week. Onyx Storm is an adult book and recommended for ages 18 and over due to its graphic scenes and sexual content. However, this is simply a “recommendation,” and there is no way to actually know if readers are sticking to this recommendation. With its huge success, it’s almost certain that the book was purchased by at least a small percentage of teens. 

However, this is just one example in recent years; there have been many books that have gone viral. Marketed as sweet rom-coms with colorful covers and cartoon-style characters, clearly made to appeal to a younger audience, while still containing a high level of explicit content. To name just a few: Ice Breaker by Hannah Grace, The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood, and Things We Never Got Over by Lucy Score. Though Adult novels with explicit content, they were marketed as young adult. 

However, this does not mean that young adult books have no sexual content. In an article published by The Herald Sun, it was found that out of 20 YA novels, 65 percent contained extreme sexual content. 

There can be various negative effects on young people when consuming this content, the newest being a growing trend in the idolisation of toxic men and relationships. Although many women in this generation identify as feminists and vow that they want relationships to be equal, this does not seem to be reflected in their choice of books. 

“Dark Romance” is a growing genre that includes different romance tropes, like kidnapping, controlling male leads, which, at best, are ‘dominant’ and, at worst, sexually abusive. Disturbingly, this is beginning to be considered a romantic and attractive form of masculinity. 

Some of the most popular books with these dynamics are as follows; 

It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover. In this story, Ryle, the male lead, while rich, attractive, and successful, is also abusive, physically assaulting Lily, the female lead, multiple times; however, Lily continuously forgives him throughout the story. While this dynamic can be interesting to read simply from the psychological standpoint and as an exploration of what love means to different people, on BookTok, Ryle is often romanticized. 

Another is Twisted Love by Anna Huang. In this story, the male lead, Alex, begins to obsess over Ava, the female lead, and falls for her. He becomes aggressive and manipulative, and this is all excused because he is “protecting” her. Many readers swoon over Alex’s masculinity and protectiveness when, in reality, a man with this level of obsession would be most certainly branded an abuser, a misogynist, and a manipulator. 

Though the above are adult novels, there is also an extremely popular bestselling young adult book; The Cruel Prince by Holly Black, though not sexually explicit, in this book, the male love interest Carden is initially cruel and elitist, he humbles Jude the female protagonist, mock hers, emotionally manipulates and at one point even orders her to publicly strip while he is magically controlling her. Jude, in turn, fights back. Such are the romantic relationships that are increasingly portrayed in books and consumed by a large readership of young women. However, the mentioned titles are considered mild in the BookTok community. 

Another book portraying characters depicting psychologically unhealthy, if not pathological, patterns, is Haunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton, published in 2021, it quickly became a NYT bestseller. In this story, the male love interest, Zade, becomes obsessed with Adeline. He stalks her, breaks into her home, and finally kidnaps her. He then takes advantage of her, and she, in turn, becomes attached to him. This book contains non-consensual sex, kidnapping, gun violence (including a gun kink), and more. 

Not exactly the thing you want your 13-year-old to be consuming, considering the damaging influence it is likely to exert. However, with the growth of popularity of Booktok, the truth is that many minors are. Additionally, there has been idolisation of these dynamics with edits and reviews, where readers fawn over the protectiveness and masculinity of these men. 

Distorted Picture of Masculinity 

Clearly, reading these kinds of books is slowly being normalized in our society. Does that mean that the characters’ psychological dynamics and relationships are, too? 

Well, it might. For a while, women swore off all masculine men, preferring the “nice guy,” the ones who were into therapy and oat milk lattes. The ones that, for equality’s sake, willingly stayed at home running the household and looking after the kids so the woman is able to pursue her career. However, recently this has shifted, and women are starting to prefer the so-called alpha male. 

A study delving deeper into exploring whether “niceness” is really a deciding factor when it comes to partner choice found that, unsurprisingly, though niceness can play a role, what appeared even more important was physical attractiveness. Just because the average-looking guy is supposedly nice no longer makes him appealing enough. 

Research shows that attraction does not only stem from the mind; women do not always fall for the guy who meets the standards. In other words, though a nice guy may treat a woman well and align better with her social and political views, she won’t necessarily choose him because attraction underlies biological dynamics. 

A study by Westminster University backs this up. 81 women watched a one-minute silent video of a man in three different scenarios varying from low assertiveness to high assertiveness. The results showed that the more dominant man was considered more attractive, which shows that many women prefer a seemingly confident, masculine man. However, in today’s society, there are few men like this for women to come across, as men have strategically been demasculinised, leading them to live undermined and distorted masculinity out of fear of the villainisation of traditional values and true manhood. 

Research done by RED C Research found that men, especially young men, are feeling increasingly conflicted about what it means to be a man, with shockingly only 51 percent indicating that being a man is something to be proud of. Additionally, there seems to be a conflict between expressing traditional masculinity due to either the stigma around “toxic masculinity” but also the pressure of being emotionally vulnerable while receiving little empathy when being so. 

Clearly, expectations of men have become highly confusing, if not impossible to satisfy. So, instead, women are starting to turn to “book boyfriends” who have few, if none, of the qualities that a stable and healthy man would have to offer. In fact, many of these ‘dark romance’ protagonists meet the criteria of a range of clinically pathological psychiatric pictures. And yet, paradoxically, they seem to represent more and more the image of a desirable man. 

Because reading books is generally seen as safe and intellectual, reading is encouraged due to the benefits it can provide. It is seen as a healthier alternative to social media, but the questionable and alarming content of many ‘dark romance’ books is often overlooked. 

Effects of Written Sexual Content on Children and Teens 

With all this, the question to be asked is, is reading explicit sexual content any less harmful than watching it? Many people argue that it is; however, certain characteristics actually suggest the opposite. One might argue that written sexual content is of an even more deceitful character, as books create a whole backstory, where the reader begins to relate to and identify with characters and justify their behaviour. Especially when the consumers are minors – not all teenagers have the discernment and maturity of adults to separate fiction from reality and what is right from wrong. 

Teenagers’ prefrontal cortex, the part of their brain that plays a role in critical thinking, self-regulation, and long-term planning, is still developing and is not fully developed until about 25. In contrast, the limbic system, which is responsible for pleasure and memories, is very active during teenage years. This means that teens are very sensitive to emotion; however, it also means they are not fully equipped to completely understand it. 

Research by PubMed, a free online database of medical information, uncovered that children exposed to explicit content are more likely to engage in high-risk sexual activities. Have multiple sexual partners and also use drugs and alcohol before sex, while an article published by Psychology Today also claims that early exposure to explicit and sexual content of any kind could play a role in a minor becoming a victim of sexual assault or be more likely to sexually assault another child. 

It’s Addictive! 

It is also important to note that sexual content of any kind can become addictive, not only to children but also to adults. American Psychiatrist Anna Lembrkae, practicing in the field of addiction herself, was someone who admittedly struggled with addiction to erotic novels; even though she worked in addiction and studied it, she was not immune to it herself.

In an interview, she talks more about this and how, in her late 40s, she first discovered romance novels, beginning with books like Twilight and 50 shades of Grey, which she describes as “socially sanctioned pornography for women” and getting progressively more explicit and graphic. She became a chain reader, compulsively reading these books and even hiding the fact that she was doing so from her family. Eventually, she realized that she was begging to act like her own patients who were struggling with addiction. 

The reason these kinds of books can become addictive is that they release dopamine and oxytocin. Specifically, what is referred to as “cheap dopamine.” 

Dopamine itself is not bad; it is a neurotransmitter connected to the brain’s pleasure system. When you are doing something that pleases you, your brain releases dopamine, reinforcing that what you have done is something enjoyable. 

However, today dopamine is far too accessible, whereas in the past, to have dopamine released, we would have to work for it. Today, we don’t, instant gratification like social media, pornography, and erotic books create instant dopamine. This is why it is referred to as cheap, because, unlike in the past, to experience anything sexual, we had to actually go out and actively work for it; now it’s just at the click of a button or the flip of a page. 

This leaves us in a hopeless cycle where we continue to feel no real sense of accomplishment, so we continue to use our bad habit to release dopamine, giving us short-term benefits but worse long-term side effects. Side effects like brain fog, depression, anxiety, sleep issues, memory issues, lack of motivation, low self-esteem, aggression, social isolation and avoidance, to mention a few. 

Interestingly, out of the above-mentioned issues, almost all of them are known to be things teens struggle with. Research shows that many young people struggle with anxiety and depression, lack of motivation, low self-esteem, and, most notably, feelings of sadness and hopelessness. 

A study done in the US found that 57 percent of US teen girls felt persistent sadness or hopelessness in 2021. This was about twice the amount that teen boys reported, an astounding 60 percent increase from the year before, and the highest reported level over the past decade. 

Interestingly enough, 2021 is also when BookTok, a book subcommunity on TikTok, took off majorly and started to considerably impact book sales. In July 2021 hashtag #booktok had 5.8 billion views, and just one month later, in July, 13 billion, and then another month later, in August, 16.6 billion views. 

I am not suggesting that the rise of reading explicit content is directly responsible for the rise of mental health issues amongst young people; however, I do believe that there is an unmistakable correlation between the two. 

Parents, Protect Your Children! 

In conclusion, simply because the explicit content your children are consuming is written doesn’t mean that it is in any way less damaging than visual sexual content. The damage that exposure to sexual content can have on children must therefore not be underestimated and needs to be brought to public awareness. Finding a solution that completely restricts minors from consuming this content is likely almost impossible, especially with the unlimited and universal access the internet offers to anything and anyone.

What should explicitly be stopped is the deceptive marketing of adult content books, the idolisation and thus normalising of toxic and abusive men and relationships, as well as the concealing of sexual content in books. Additionally, I encourage parents and guardians to take an actual close look at the books their children are reading and the effects they will potentially have.

Children and teenagers desperately need a model of healthy, respectful, safe, and trustworthy relationships, not only in their close environment but also in their virtual and artificial reality that is created through books, movies and the manifold online experiences that take up an immense part in today’s world.

If we want to ensure our children’s physical and psychological well-being, we must not turn a blind eye to the potential dangers this young generation is facing but wake up to the dangers and harms they are exposed too, also the subtle, less obvious ones..