“If your having social difficulty, suicide is a way of solving that problem.” According to adolescent physiatrist Dr. Stan Kutcher, this is the message that youth are taking from sick-lit, a popular young adult genre of novels that “deal with complex issues relating to death and disease.” Kutcher’s is among the many other crazy anti-sick lit suggestions in a great debate on whether this genre is harmful or not to tweens. Although these anti-sick lit comments seem to be made for the protection of tweens, to say this literature, depicting both important and relevant issues, is ‘dangerous’, is utterly ridiculous. Not only is this literature comforting and relatable to suffering teens, but it provides insight and portrays important messages surrounding these subjects that help widen perspectives and understanding. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, possibly the most popular sick-lit is a fictional novel that looks at the tragic love of two teenagers with terminal cancer as they both fight for their love and lives. While this novel depicts the important messages of the effects of terminal illness, it has been labelled as “mawkish” and “exploitative” by the Daily Mai, and other critics label this novel as inspiring and glorifying of depression, self-harm, and illness. Ever since the rise of this genre, sick-lit novels such as The Fault in Our Stars have received criticism through exploring ‘dangerous’ areas with young, oh so ‘impressionable’, teenagers. Eric Meyers, professor of information science at the University of British Columbia adds to the argument, claiming “The challenge when you first encounter this is whether this is really appropriate for young people.” The idea that books depicting the both important and relevant issue of cancer, are deemed ‘non-appropriate’ is completely troubling, it is concerning that in today’s society, people would reason that the idea of cancer and depression is ‘inappropriate’, or ‘taboo’. For the majority, reading a book about in love teenagers who die of cancer isn’t going to influence teenagers to wishing to