John Green

John Green was born in Indianapolis but spent most of his childhood in Orlando, Florida. His time at a boarding school outside Birmingham, Alabama, has informed some of his fiction, which he has largely written for a young adult audience. Green attended Kenyon College in Ohio, which is known for its robust creative writing program. After graduating in 2000, he briefly enrolled in the University of Chicago’s Divinity School and intended to become a chaplain; he never actually attended classes because he decided over the course of his time working with child hospital patients that he wanted instead to be a novelist. Later, his brief student chaplaincy became the basis for The Fault in Our Stars, his sixth novel, which he published in 2012. The novel received wide acclaim and was adapted into a film in 2014. Green had a cameo in the film and was recognizable to fans because of his internet presence in several YouTube series. These include Crash Course, which features educational videos hosted by Green, and Vlogbrothers, in which he and his brother, Hank Green, explain and discuss subjects ranging from pop culture to politics. Green has also complemented his novels by writing book reviews for The New York Times and radio essays for NPR and WBEZ, Chicago’s public radio station. Green, who has identified himself as a feminist, has been criticized for representing teenage girls and people of color without the same nuance he gives to the white teen boys in his novels. Still, he is often cited as a positive influence on teenagers and has received mostly positive reviews for his internet and radio outreach as well as his novels, which also include Looking for Alaska, Paper Towns, and Turtles All the Way Down.