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.
— Jenny Han
It's important for Asian American kids to see themselves in stories and to feel seen. They need to know that their stories are universal, too, that they, too, can fall in love in a teen movie. They don't have to be the sidekick; they can be the hero.
When you write something by hand, there's a sort of intimacy that is just intrinsic to that act. You don't get to delete something in the same way, where it's like it was never there.
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.
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.
Whenever I was trying to get over a boy, I would write him a really long, wrought letter - but never mail it.
The American girl doesn't look just one kind of way - not in 2018, not ever.
It's fairly common to get something optioned but really rare to actually see it become a movie.
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.
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.
Writing is just always hard for me. It always feels like drawing blood. It's never particularly easy.
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.
It's far too rare an experience for Asian American girls to see themselves in media.
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.
I write diverse books because the world we live in is diverse, and I want my books to reflect that truth.
As a child, I spent a lot of summers going to the beach with family friends.
'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.
Just like Lara Jean in my book 'To All the Boys I've Loved Before,' I used to write letters to boys I was in love with - letters full of emotion and longing and also recrimination - but they were for my eyes only.
You don't have to you change yourself for somebody else to like you.
Sometimes you don't know what a book is about until you are finished with it and you're talking about it.
When I get an email from someone who says, 'Your book was the first book I ever read,' or, 'Your book is what made me love reading,' it's just such an honor.
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.
When you're young, you don't have a lot of control over even basic things in your life - where you live, what you eat, where you go during the day, how you get there. You don't have a lot of control, and that can feel sort of unstable in its own way because you don't get a say in those basic things.
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 always know what time it is.
Even as a full-grown adult, it can still feel destabilizing when your family goes through changes.
I think, generally, romantic stories end with people together. But I'd like a story that ends, like, hopefully but not necessarily neatly.
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.
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.
There's something so delicious about holding onto a secret; it's something just for you.
Beyonce, Otis Redding, Led Zeppelin, Stevie Wonder, and Adele are a few of my favorites.
I think most girls have that moment when boys they've known their whole life see them in a different way.
My name is Jennifer, and when I first went to school, my kindergarten teacher called me Jenny, and from then on, I was Jenny.
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.
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.
There is real power in seeing yourself as a hero. Because then you believe that you can do anything.
My sister and I are really close. She's my little sister.
The books you read as a young person are books that stay with you forever. I think that is the biggest privilege of writing for young people. You feel like you can help shape somebody.
College applications are such a huge part of senior year, yet often times you never see characters in books actually do work.
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, oftentimes, what people say is, 'We need an actress who'll be able to greenlight a movie,' and my counterargument to that is always that, when it comes to a teen movie, you have very few people who can greenlight a movie.
I might just be the luckiest girl ever.
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.
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.
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.
Change is hard but inevitable.
I worked on 'Always and Forever, Lara Jean' for a few months before I breathed a word of it my editor or agent.
I don't think kids of color should have to search far and wide to find books that reflect their experience.
All my writer friends outline their books, and I find that hard. It doesn't feel inspired to me. I get bored with that, and really, I just want it to be fun.
I just think of myself as a writer. Yes, I'm a woman. And I'm a writer. The main challenge is that I like to write stories about young women, and society doesn't place much of a premium on young women's stories. And I think that's why I gravitate towards it. I really honor that, and I treasure that time, and they should be given that respect.
