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.
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.
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.
A tweet in an article can feel more permanent and louder than a tweet on Twitter.
'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 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 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.
I might just be the luckiest girl ever.
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.
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 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 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.
It's fairly common to get something optioned but really rare to actually see it become a movie.
It's far too rare an experience for Asian American girls to see themselves in media.
Change is hard but inevitable.
Writing is just always hard for me. It always feels like drawing blood. It's never particularly easy.
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.
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.
