Well, I don’t ever plan anything in my books. Since I don’t outline, I tend to just go wherever my imagination leads me and where I feel excited to w… - Jenny Han

I'm not one of those writers that drafts out 500 pages, and then cuts a bunch of stuff, and then does new stuff on the fly. I'm just a lot more slow. And my process is every word pretty much gets used. I don't really have a lot of stuff on the cutting room floor from the books. I mean, some conversations and smaller scenes, but I don't think there's any big plot point or anything that I wrote but didn't use.

There’s something very compelling about the immediacy and urgency of adolescence. As a storyteller, I’m drawn to first times and to how intense all of those emotions can feel in the moment. What’s interesting for me is being able to honor that and treat it with respect, and not think that because it’s about young people, it’s somehow less important of an experience.

Immigrant parents don’t want their children to suffer or have to live harder than they did.