Twilight by Stephenie Meyer was the cultural phenomenon that hit shelves in 2005 and has been one of the most talked about books ever since. Love it or hate it, you’ve had an opinion about it at some point in your life, and why wouldn’t you! Twilight is the book that took the world by storm with it’s sparkling vampires, hot werewolves, and blushing self insert main character. This love story spanning four books and five movies changed the world in a way no one could anticipate, but with the gift of hindsight we can see  how Twilight changed the world in some of the simplest ways possible. 

Twilight made fiction female. This sounds like an odd statement, but it’s exactly true when we think about how Twilight gained its success and acclaim. Twilight was made with a female audience in mind, and a female main character, a rare thing at the time of books made for primarily little children full of little boy heroes; Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, and Artemis Fowl to name a few. This female driven-ness was all thanks to the amount of female influence the books and movies had, to quote How ‘Twilight’ changed pop culture,

“There was a woman at the very center of it, we had a woman director, and it was written by a woman,” Gathegi enumerates. “It felt very female-driven, the whole momentum of it. That was cool to be part of. I think Twilight, [if it were] made now, would get a lot of credit, because that’s the conversation today.”

(Sollosi, M. 2018)

Twilight was made for women, by women and appealed to the audience that would soon become the most popular audience for media, cinema, and books; young teen girls. Teenage girls were the perfect audience for a book like this, young girls with disposable income, a new interest in boys, and a yearning for a romance with a guy who finds them irresistibly attractive despite their flaws. From this point forward movie studios and novel makers would be advertising in the hopes girls would become obsessed with their shows and keep that obsession going with them in their later lives; shows that successfully managed this being Supernatural, the BBC rendition of Sherlock, and the later seasons of Doctor Who. 

Along that same vein, Twilight was pure in a way many novels aren’t today. It presents relationships in an appealing way, romantic, committed, and innocent, to quote a paper titled Young adult pop fiction: Empathy and the twilight series, “She presents cooperation as crucial in fulfilling her characters’ happiness: the role that love and happiness play in the lives of Bella, Edward, and Jacob is intricately tied to commitment.” (Unzue, 2015) Women wanted to see a fulfilling relationship based on mutual trust, love, commitment, and affection and they didn’t even know it. Women across the world would now carry a new standard of romance with them into their adult lives. 

Twilight changed the way YA novels were written and perceived, bringing a cultural revolution and supernatural creatures to the spotlight. Twilight’s portal of relationships even changed the way women consumed media to some extent thanks to this factor. Now women wanted a supernatural creature who would love them without fail and be obsessed with their every move. “Through this heavily romanticized scheme emerged the larger contemporary vampire culture visible across shows such as The Vampire Diaries (2009–present, CW) and True Blood (2008–2014, HBO).” (Klein, S. 2015) Though The Vampire Diaries ended in 2017 we still see Meyers cultural influence today with shows like Supernatural which just ended last year, Riverdale, (still ongoing) and even the widely popular series The Hunger Games. It was through Meyers’ use of a love triangle and popularity of that trope that The Hunger Games would also become a cultural phenomenon with “team peeta” and “team Gale.” 

To summarize, Twilight was crucial for a cultural reset that would change the way media was advertised, women (and even men to some capacity) perceived relationships, and introduced a supernatural element to nearly all new media, and love triangles to others. Twilight changed current media in so many more ways than just this, and deserves to be recognized for its achievements. I like to end all of my essays with a quote that I believe sums up my feelings better than I could, so in conclusion, “We were all thrown into this amusement park ride, and for better or worse, it was just so much fun,” Lutz says. “Twilight was a great adventure.” (Sollosi, M. 2018)

References

Meyer, S. (2005). Twilight. New York, NY: Little, Brown and.

Sollosi, M. (2018, November 21). How ‘Twilight’ changed pop culture. Retrieved April 19, 2021, from https://ew.com/movies/2018/11/21/twilight-anniversary-impact/

Klein, S. (2015). Twilight: Changing the business and culture of contemporary cinema. Retrieved April 19, 2021, from https://www.forbes5.pitt.edu/article/twilight-changing-business-and-culture-contemporary-cinema  Revised 03/22/21

Unzue, A. (2015, August 14). Young adult pop fiction: Empathy and the twilight series. Retrieved April 19, 2021, from https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/11141