52 Time February 10, 20208 Questions‘
I WANT TO
HEAR FROM
PEOPLE WE
HAVEN’T HEARD
FROM BEFORE
’
you still see a need for progress in
representation in the movies? I want
to hear from people we haven’t heard
from before. I hope that’s where this is
going, and that the representation will
just get wider. Not just with race, but
with size and sexuality. There’s so much
more to explore.What was your high school
experience like? I had a really great
time in high school. I went to a magnet
school. If you were cool, you were still
like a nerd. And it was a really diverse
school. So I felt like going into it, I just
learned so much about other cultures
that I never would have known about if
I had stayed in my regular school.How do you use social media to reach
your readers, and what are those
interactions like? I feel very close to
them and worried for them. It’s hard
sometimes to even read some of their
questions because I feel scared for
them. There are so many hard aspects
of being on social media, but one of the
really positive ones is that you have a
direct line to talk to your readers and
connect, and to me, storytelling is all
about connecting with people.Do a lot of young people come to
you for love advice? Yes, and not just
young people—even people in their 30s.
I love giving advice. I’m just careful
because I don’t want to give the
wrong advice. I try to be
honest and not tell people just
what they want to hear, but
what I think is right. A lot of
their questions are like, “Am
I weird?”How do you answer that? I say no!
I say: You’re not weird. Everything
you’re doing is just right. And don’t feel
pressure to do something if you’re not
quite ready for it yet, or if you haven’t
met that right person. It’s all in your
own time.
—AnnAbel GuTTermAnP
.S. I Still Love You picks up
where the previous book left
off. Your main character, Lara
Jean, has a boyfriend, but now finds
herself feeling insecure. How do you
get into the mindset of a teenager?
I really don’t approach it any differently
than when I’m writing for adults. It’s all
just a human experience—and you can
feel insecure about your relationship
and be thinking about his past
girlfriends when you’re 40 years old. It’s
approaching those “teenage” emotions
with the same respect and seriousness
as you would for an adult love story.There are a lot of firsts in P.S. I Still
Love You. First boyfriends, first
dates. What’s a memorable first for
you? Everything went wrong on the
night of my first dance. I was 15 or 16,
and my date got into a car accident on
the way. After, he was shaken up, so he
drove really slowly. He parked really far
away from the dance and it was raining
so hard. We walked all the way up to
the school, and a low-hanging branch
knocked me in the head. I have pictures
of myself from that night and I have a
mark on my forehead. Oh, and when
we got to school, he realized he left the
tickets in the car.Romantic comedies are having
a comeback, but they were long
criticized for perpetuating
stereotypes. How do you address
those concerns? Even though we
see Lara Jean’s personal growth, she’s
still who she is from the beginning
to the end. Being in a relationship
or meeting a guy, those weren’t the
things that changed her. It was
more of her opening up and having
her world get a bit bigger. It was
important for me to see that
representation of not changing
your whole self just to be
with somebody.Lana Condor, an Asian-American
actor, plays the lead. Where doJenny Han The YA author on the film adaptation
of her To All the Boys trilogy, the power of rom-coms
and her best love advice