According to the New York Times, a website called Figment.com was recently launched with the purpose of creating a space where young people could read, write, and see new content. Figment was founded by Jacob Lewis and Dana Goodyear, former managing editor and current staff writer at the New Yorker, respectively. The site is a free platform for youths to read and write using their home computers and cell phones. Users are encouraged to produce poems, short stories, and novels, and to collaborate, critique, and edit work posted to the site.

“We wanted people to be able to write whatever they wanted in whatever form they wanted,” Lewis said. “We give them a piece of paper and say, ‘Go.’” Contributions to the website so far have included sci-fi, fantasy, biographical, and serial works. After the success of series like Harry Potter and Twilight, publishers have become very interested in learning more about their young-adult readers. Figment, as much as it is a place for young people to write, is a window for publishers to learn about the YA demographic.

“For publishers this is an amazing opportunity to not only reach your consumers but to find out really valuable information about how they are reading,” Lewis said. He already has a number of publishers involved in the website, both to consider publishing some of the material and for introducing excerpts of upcoming releases.