Jenny from the block

Find out why YA author Jenny Han is just as lovely as the books she writes.

MANILA, Philippines - The first thing that Jenny Han does when she meets me is give me a hug. I have to explain; an hour before I had to meet her for our interview, my car got hit by a reckless tricycle driver. Almost immediately Jenny’s warmth reminds me of her bestselling young adult books  —warm, inviting, and almost like a friend to keep you company. She’s penned well-loved series such as the trilogy The Summer I Turned Pretty, which revolves around Belly Conklin’s love triangle with two brothers, and To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, about a girl whose secret love letters accidentally get sent out to the recipients. I chitchat with Jenny during her visit to Manila to talk about the sequels, gender equality, and just where in New York City you can have a romance worth writing about.

YOUNG STAR: I really loved your new book (To All the Boys). I’m curious as to why you ended it a little ambiguously.

JENNY HAN: A little bit! Well, I’ve always liked stories that ended ambiguously, just because in my mind the ending never really feels like the end. It just feels like the story goes on, but we’re not, like, there anymore. But actually, the story is going on because I’m working on a sequel. It’s supposed to come out next April.

There was a scene in which Lara Jean’s dad gives her gift certificates to her favorite store because the necklace she wanted to buy was gone. Is the necklace gonna figure into the sequel?

(Laughs) Wait and see! I get asked that question a lot, actually. Wait and see, man. It may or may not appear. Have a sandwich. You went through such an ordeal today!

Oh, thanks! The guy who hit my car was trying to bully me, and I had to sort of push back and assert myself. A lot of spectators around us were calling me pushy and loud, just because I’m a girl.

Good, good. It’s what you’re supposed to do. That’s the thing, it’s always a negative connotation for women standing up for themselves. “Oh, she’s bossy, she’s this and that.” And it’s weird because you never hear that being said about a man.

And is that sort of gender stereotype hard as a female writer?

I think there are a lot of women in publishing, and women in power. If anything, it’s feeling sometimes that being a woman who writes coming-of-age stories and there happens to be a romantic element or a love story involved, then it becomes a romance. I think generally, not just in YA, male authors are treated a bit more seriously. Their books are not shelved in the romance section, just literature. But when women do it, it’s chick lit.

I heard you live in New York City. What do you think are the best places to fall in love that are worth writing about? You know, those Nora Ephron sort of stories.

Actually, when I first moved to New York I wanted to work for a bookstore because I loved You’ve Got Mail so much. And the movie was actually based on the children’s bookstore (I worked in). But for places to fall in love… I would say the gym? (Laughs) Cause you never see guys outside the gym, I think. Bookstores, definitely, because then you see people who like to read so you have similar interests.