Writing for a teenage audience can be challenging. Readers of young adult fiction tend to fall into the age range of 13 to 17, and they expect certain story elements to be present in order to keep their interest. When author and writing instructor Christina Hoag set out to write her first YA novel, Girl on the Brink, she hoped to share a story about teen dating violence. The details were based on something that she experienced later in life, but she wanted to translate it for a younger audience. The most difficult part of writing the story was finding her teenage voice, Hoag says, and maintaining this voice throughout the entire story. Hoag read a lot of YA novels to learn from other authors that successfully found their teenage voice.