Young Adults

Outsiders have always been "in" in young-adult fiction. Those who deviate from the norm--especially amid the intense peer pressure of teen-age years--may make us uncomfortable in real life but fascinate us in the pages of a book. The reason could be that reading about characters whose outward appearance or behavior or life circumstances set them apart is a safe way to explore the pain of our own feelings of separateness.

Santa Monica author Lynda Madaras is known for her frank chatter in her growing-up guides for adolescents ("What's Happening to My Body?"). Now she Talks to Teens About AIDS: An Essential Guide for Parents, Teachers, and Young People (Newmarket Press: $12.95, cloth; $5.95, paper; 106 pp.)--and she is as candid as a bold best friend. Madaras doesn't care if her intimate details make you blush--after all, nobody has ever died of embarrassment.

A poll of young adults sponsored by two youth organizations shows that most do not think they will be financially better off than their parents. But they are not totally pessimistic. Though 57% are very concerned about the middle class disappearing, 77% think they personally can achieve the American dream. That means economic status may not play as large a role in defining the American dream for the 18-to-34 age group, said Chris Matthews, one of the pollsters and president of Bellwether Research & Consulting.

Cocaine and methamphetamine use among young adults declined significantly last year as supplies dried up, leading to higher prices and reduced purity, the government reports. Overall use of illicit drugs showed little change. About 1 in 5 young adults last year acknowledged illicit drug use within the previous month, a rate similar to that of previous years. The National Survey on Drug Use and Health, being released today by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, is based on interviews with about 67,500 people.

Fountain Valley Hospital and Regional Medical Center is offering a six-part cancer symposium for a group not typically associated with the disease: young adults. The sessions, to start Feb. 12 and continue to April 23, are aimed at educating county cancer patients in their 20s and 30s about treatment while giving them a forum to voice their concerns about living with the disease, treatment and maintaining a career and family life through medical hardship.

Is faith losing its grip on the young? That would be one way to read a new report by the respected Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, which found that more than one-quarter of Americans age 18 to 29 have no religious preference or affiliation, and fewer than one in five attend services regularly. That makes them easily the least religious generation among Americans alive today, perhaps the least religious ever. Or does it? The Pew study found that, although young adults -- the so-called Millennial generation born after 1981 -- are shunning traditional religious denominations and services in unprecedented numbers, their faith in God and the power of prayer appears nearly as strong as that of young people in earlier generations.

WASHINGTON - President Obama's healthcare law helped as many as 6.6 million young adults stay on or get on their parents' health plans in the first year and a half after the law was signed, a new survey indicates. That number, found in the survey by the nonprofit Commonwealth Fund, is far higher than earlier estimates. And at a time when public wariness about the Affordable Care Act remains high, it underscores the popularity of a provision that requires insurers to allow parents to enroll their children up to age 26 on their own plans.

The Simi Valley Youth Employment Service will be holding its 12th annual Job and Career Fair for young adults from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 25. Located at the Mountaingate Plaza at 1st Street and Los Angeles Avenue, the fair will host more than 70 area businesses from the Simi Valley YMCA to the Alert Communications Co. Young adults ages 16 to 22 will have the opportunity to apply for jobs as well as explore a variety of career options at the event, which is free.

Adrienne Jones, 84, who wrote 15 novels for young adults, including the award-winning "Street Family." Jones, a native of Atlanta, decided to become a writer after her second-grade teacher praised some of her verses and published them in the school paper. She grew up in Hollywood and Beverly Hills and studied fiction at UCLA and UC Irvine. Her first novel, "Thunderbird Pass," was published in 1952 by J.B. Lippincott.