A young adult is an informal term used to describe the transition from teenager to adult.

Young adult falls usually between 16-25, encompassing the end of the teenager years and the beginning of adulthood.

Young adults usually enter post-secondary education and/or engage in work. At this early age of adulthood, young adults usually cannot make as much money as regular adults. Young adults usually deal with terms like minimum wage, inexperience , tuition, and deficits, when they start out in adulthood.

"Young adult literature" is also a term used in publishing and librarianship, to distinguish books written for the age group of young adults. As with all subdefinitions of children's literature, there is debate as to what are the defining criteria for this label.