There’s more to John Green than ‘The Fault in Our Stars’

MANILA, Philippines - John Green has been in the spotlight lately, as his latest book has been speedily adapted into one of the most highly anticipated films, at least on adolescent radar screens. The Fault in Our Stars, his novel from 2012, follows the exploits of Hazel Grace Lancaster, a cancer patient, and her romantic interest, one of the most infuriatingly pretentious characters — but also a hit with the ladies — Augustus Waters. It debuted at No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list and stayed on the list for 119 weeks, 49 of them holding the top spot.

Green is currently one of the biggest, most easily recognizable authors in the Young Adult genre — something that has earned him equal parts praise and derision in the past few years. His books are polarizing, but then again such hits, especially of the YA variety, often are. I first encountered John Green through an infamous quote on Tumblr where he likened people to meteorological phenomena — you know the one — after which a friend sent me Green’s first novel, Looking for Alaska, from the UK. I was hooked and I never looked back.

I have a lot to say about YA author John Green (spoiler alert: I am from the “I LOVE HIM” camp), but I have a lot more to say about the Real John Green, Person. Why I love John Green extends beyond his novels, and here are some of the reasons why:

• Vlogbrothers and Nerdfighteria. If you’ve ever Googled John Green, you’d know that he has created a somewhat cultish following. This community, Nerdfighteria, existed pre-TFiOS and has been following John and his brother Hank, for years, through their collective YouTube channel, Vlogbrothers. Originally set up to keep in touch with each other, Vlogbrothers has reached a much wider audience, committed to “decrease worldsuck.” Their YouTube videos are often insightful and humorous, but also touching on important issues of the world in four minutes or less. Don’t Forget To Be Awesome (or DFTBA) has been Nerdfighteria’s battle cry, spurning on thousands of people to do good. Somewhere out there are also a bunch of amazing videos of his first baby, Henry Atticus Green.

• Project for Awesome and the Foundation to Decrease Worldsuck. One of the offshoots of Brotherhood 2.0 (or Vlogbrothers), Project for Awesome was launched in 2007 to help charities all over the world through The Foundation to Decrease Worldsuck. During the now annual Project for Awesome, YouTube content creators create videos to advocate their chosen charities, with the Nerdfighters helping to promote specific P4A videos towards donations to the said charities. Project for Awesome 2013 raised $869,171 collectively.

• HPA. Though Green is not a member of the main team of the Harry Potter Alliance, The Foundation to Decrease Worldsuck is a major donor. HPA is another nonprofit that aims to address worldwide issues of inequality, illiteracy and human rights violations, among others.

• Kiva. Kiva is a non-profit that aims to alleviate poverty by connecting individuals who can lend as little as $25 to impoverished people all over the world. Kiva has a Nerdfighteria team, of which John is one of the nine team captains. Nearly 45,000 members have loaned $3,969,575 to 134,287 individuals all over the world.

• DFTBA Records. DFTBA is a label owned by the Green brothers, through which they help promote and distribute musical, artistic, and visual talent often within Nerdfighteria, to the world. This is kind of the merch store of the whole community.

• Crash Course. Crash Course is a web series on YouTube geared towards bite-sized, easy-to-understand lessons in literature, science, and history, among others. It is a great way to learn more about the world, especially for people like me who’ve been out of school for a while. Crash Course is free to watch, but you can elect to pay for the content through Subbable, another outlet co-founded by John Green.

• Subbable. Through Subbable, you can basically choose to pay for free content, to benefit those who create it. Instead of being bombarded by ads that you don’t even want to watch, the content creators on Subbable earn back the cost of making their videos through flexible subscriptions. You pay what you think the videos are worth, which can help the content creators to keep making them.

• The Art Assignment. Produced by PBS Digital Studios, The Art Assignment is an educational video series centered around art, art history and contemporary artists across the United States, with a focus on community participation. The project is headed by Sarah Urist Green, John’s wife, affectionately referred to as “The Yeti” by Nerdfighters everywhere, though John serves as an “executive producer and regular guest.”

• The now-defunct themountaingoatswillcureyourbieberfever.com. I think you all know what this is, and such a fine advocacy this is.

And that, my friends, is just the tip of the iceberg that I have named “Why I Love John Green.” On top of being a really talented author of the YA persuasion, John Green is an amazing human being all around. You may not like his books, or actually Young Adult fiction in general, but you can’t not like him as a person. I dare you to try.

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