While YA had grown steadily throughout the late 20th century, a dramatic shift occurred with the advent of massive fantasy and speculative series in the late 1990s and early 2000s. J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books (first published 1997) helped bring millions of teens — and adults — into YA reading, transforming how stories about young people were marketed and consumed.

Following Harry Potter, commercially successful series such as Stephenie Meyer's Twilight (2008) and Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games (2008) solidified YA as a blockbuster category of publishing and pop culture, with strong cross-media appeal through film adaptations.