Breaking Dawn of a new ‘Twilight’ audience
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Chelsea Tomita
April 16, 2009
Filed under Arts & Entertainment
In an ironed pair of black work slacks and a conservative brown turtleneck, 49-year-old Ms. Laurie Tomita sits quietly in the driver’s seat of her Mazda Tribute, reading while she waits for her daughter Kellie’s soccer practice to end.
One would expect to see in her hands a book from a best-selling author like Nicholas Sparks, whose romance novels are a hit amongst the older female crowd. Instead, a romance book from best-selling author Stephanie Meyer is in its place.
Introduced to the series by her eighth-grade daughter Kellie, Ms. Tomita was intrigued to find out why Kellie had traded in the TV remote for a Twilight book.
“Kellie is not a reader, so I wanted to see why she was so into it,” Ms. Tomita says. Like many others, she heard about the Twilight craze and wanted to discover firsthand what all the hype was about. Curious, Ms. Tomita borrowed her daughter’s copy and has since fallen in love with the series.
Ms. Tomita’s story is one that many women can relate to. Since its release in 2006, the novel’s crazed teenage girl audience has grown to include an older female audience, as well as a few teenage boys.
Much of this change in the demographic of Twilight readers can be attributed to these teenage girls. Often times these crazed girls are the ones introducing the Twilight series to older women. Such is true in the case of 46-year-old ‘Iolani teacher Ms. Cate Waidyatilleka.
After tenth-grade student Maya Hayashi’s incessant nagging got the best of Ms. Waidyatilleka, she finally relented.
“I know and I say that it is a teenage girl book,” Ms. Waidyatilleka says. But that did not stop her from reading the series a total of three times.
“I think it’s a really great combination of love and action,” Ms. Waidyatilleka says. Her enthusiasm for the series has also stirred up interest in her sixth-grade son, who is currently re-reading the Twilight series.
Although some women are embarrassed to share their love of Twilight with others, this is certainly not the case for 24-year-old Chasity.
Chasity is the creator of the Stephanie Meyer’s Fan Club on Hawaii’s MomsLikeMe.com. Her club, which includes 25 members, aims to connect Twilight fans from all corners of Hawaii.
However, Chasity did not stop there. Eager to share her new find with others, she purchased $50 to $60 worth of Twilight books to give to friends.
Although the majority of women agree that Twilight is geared towards teens, they understand its appeal to women of all ages.
“No matter our current age, we were all young adults at some point,” Chasity says, “As readers we take what we connect with out of books.”
Vampire-human romance aside, Twilight features a variety of valuable lessons and morals that these women can relate to. The inner conflict to control one’s desires, understanding the importance of family, and knowing there’s a consequence for every action are just some of their favorites.
But the one thing that makes all three of these women swoon at the mention of Twilight is the relationship between Bella Swan and Edward Cullen. Chasity describes the relationship between the two characters as the “ultimate love.”
The fact that Edward is attentive, protective, and highly moral is just some of the things that make Ms. Waidyatilleka crazy about the novel’s modern-day Romeo. She views Twilight as a positive influence and hopes that her son will “become more of a gentleman by reading it.”
Edward epitomizes the Prince Charming that all girls, regardless of age, can only dream about. Unfortunately, Edward is indeed only a fictional character, and dreaming is all these teenage girls and women will be able to do. Now the only thing these women can hope for is that the men in their lives will be the next to catch a hold of the Twilight craze.
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Great job Chelsea.
Thank you for sharing the article with me.
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