The most joyful part of writing, for me, is when I am 90% there, and suddenly the story clicks into place, and things finally start to make sense.
Jenny Han
Food is a way to explore culture and ground the story in a specific time and place. I still remember the meals and snacks from my first novel, 'Shug': pork chops and applesauce and Coca-Cola and peanuts, which are very Southern. When a character has roots elsewhere, food is a way to connect with home and another culture.
When you handwrite something, you're writing your most raw, pure thoughts. If you want to change it, then you have to mark it out, and people can see you laboring over that thought. I think even the act of hand, pen, and paper is much more intimate than with a computer screen.
There is real power in seeing yourself as a hero. Because then you believe that you can do anything.
I think, generally, romantic stories end with people together. But I'd like a story that ends, like, hopefully but not necessarily neatly.
I think you are going through so many 'firsts' as a teenager, and it's a charged time because of that. You don't have much autonomy in life. Everything is just kind of crazy, and there are so many huge decisions to be made, like where are you going to college or who you date. These things can really affect your whole life.
I started writing stories at a young age, but not once did it occur to me that I could grow up to be a writer. Who could I look to? My favorite authors were Ann M. Martin and E.L. Konigsburg and Judy Blume, Beverly Cleary and Lois Lowry and Norma Klein. They were all white women, and they seemed so stately to me, so elegant. A whole world away.
I do end up revealing a lot online, but in books, what I reveal is more tailored. Authors can couch revelations in fiction. With social media, no one wants to watch or read if it doesn't feel authentic, so you end up giving away a lot of yourself.
I think that's what distinguishes YA from adult fiction - it's not just the age of the characters, but it's the sense of hope. Because I don't think I've ever read a YA book that feels completely hopeless at the end.
I think that sometimes we put undue pressure on stories featuring people of color, and I hope we get to a point where it's not such a rarity to see a person of color be the hero of a story, so that it can just be a story and not have to carry so much weight.
My sister is my very favorite person, and I dedicated 'To All the Boys I've Loved Before' to her.
Whenever I was trying to get over a boy, I would write him a really long, wrought letter - but never mail it.
My name is Jennifer, and when I first went to school, my kindergarten teacher called me Jenny, and from then on, I was Jenny.
Change is hard but inevitable.
The feedback for 'P.S. I Still Love You' has been pretty amazing. To have written this story about this family with Asian-American characters and be so embraced is really incredible for me as a writer as well as a person of color.
I worked on 'Always and Forever, Lara Jean' for a few months before I breathed a word of it my editor or agent.
I learn so much on Twitter all the time, and it would be a shame not to share that with my readers.
My sister and I are really close. She's my little sister.
When I finished 'P.S. I Still Love You,' I truly was done with the series. I kept saying the books were two halves of a heart. But I suppose time and space had made me nostalgic, because my mind kept drifting back to Lara Jean and Peter, wondering what they were up to.
I think most girls have that moment when boys they've known their whole life see them in a different way.
I always know what time it is.
I don't think you ever love anything as passionately as you do when you're a teen. You remember the books you read as a young person your whole life. I feel so lucky to write for young adults.
It's far too rare an experience for Asian American girls to see themselves in media.
I always think about race as a part of one's identity, not the whole of one's identity. You don't want it to be the defining characteristic of a character. There has to be more.
I started writing my first book for young people when I was in college. I was only a couple of years out of my teens when I began; I felt closer to that experience than I did as an adult. But I've always been drawn to stories about young people.
We learn so much about the world by what we take in through movies and TV and books - we learn who's worthy of having their story told.
There are so many people that want to tell stories. I think that the issue is how hard it is to get your foot in the door to tell your stories.
Sometimes readers want some escapist fun, to get lost in the story. But light-hearted romantic stories can and should star all kinds of girls.
There's some of me in all my characters.
You don't really know when the last time you're going to do something is; the middle can often be a bit blurry. Firsts are very potent.
My whole life, as an adult as well, I've been attracted to stories about young people. This period of time is so fertile - there's a million things that are happening, a million firsts, and to be able to witness that and record that is a privilege.
The American girl doesn't look just one kind of way - not in 2018, not ever.
When I sold my first middle-grade novel in 2005, it wasn't that common to put an author photo on the back flap, but 24-year-old Korean-American me insisted. I wanted Asian girls to see my face. And more than that, I wanted them to see what is possible.
I don't think kids of color should have to search far and wide to find books that reflect their experience.
Beyonce, Otis Redding, Led Zeppelin, Stevie Wonder, and Adele are a few of my favorites.
There is power in seeing a face that looks like yours do something, be someone. There is power in moving from the sidelines to the center.
I like to read non-fiction on my e-reader, but as for fiction, I usually like to have a copy to keep at home.
As a child, I spent a lot of summers going to the beach with family friends.
I had a bulletin board in my bedroom with every picture of Leo ever taken - keep in mind, this was pre-'Titanic' and pre-Us Weekly, practically pre-Internet. I had to buy 'The Leonardo DiCaprio Album' and cut out my favorite pics.
Every choice leads you somewhere, but it might not be where you truly want to be if the decision is based on someone else. It could lead to regrets and what-ifs, but that doesn't mean you wouldn't still have valuable experiences.
College applications are such a huge part of senior year, yet often times you never see characters in books actually do work.
Writing is just always hard for me. It always feels like drawing blood. It's never particularly easy.
With Asian-Americans actors, specifically, there's been fewer opportunities for them in TV and film and fewer that have the ability to actually make a career out of it. It becomes a bit of a chicken and egg situation, where they're like, 'Oh, but they're not famous names,' but they haven't had a chance to be in anything yet, either.
I was writing my first book when I was in college. I was a teenager.
It's fairly common to get something optioned but really rare to actually see it become a movie.
'The Summer I Turned Pretty' is about how, as a young woman, everyone gets that moment of being in bloom, but nobody really appreciates it.
There's something so delicious about holding onto a secret; it's something just for you.
I really love to write about food, crafts, and fashion, so those details will always be a part of my books. I think they inject stories with color and flavor, providing a tactile experience.
It's not hard to get into a teen's head, because it's all emotions. Their feelings are amplified; you have no luxury of hindsight. If you haven't had your heart broken before, you don't know that you'll be able to get back up again.
A tweet in an article can feel more permanent and louder than a tweet on Twitter.
