SUMMER LOVE

Jenny Han's storybook journey from YA author to rom-com streaming mogul

- LUCY FELDMAN

ON A WARM, EARLY SUMMER EVENING LAST year, a crowd of adolescent girls squeezed together on folding chairs in the rare-book room of the Strand bookstore in New York City. Hushed chatter filled the space as they waited for the sold-out event to begin. "Just think," a teen whispered to her friend, "when she walks in, we'll be breathing the same air as her."

It's the kind of comment usually heard in the vicinity of pop stars and actors. But that night, the audience was there for an author turned producer: Jenny Han.

Han takes a moment when she hears this story. We're at an Alice in Wonderland-themed tea shop on the Upper East Side, an array of scones and clotted cream spread out between us. Our whimsical setting was Han's choice, and it's one that's easy to imagine serving as the backdrop for a first date in one of her romantic comedies. "That makes me want to cry," she says, setting down her dainty cup.

Han, who made her debut in 2006 and has since published 10 additional books for and about young people, has long inspired big feelings in her readers. She had a past life as a children's librarian, and that little strand of code is still in her DNA. It's there in her signature cat-eye glasses, in her ability to shift instantly from serious to playful, and in the way she talks about writing for young readers. Adults pick up books and forget what they read shortly after. "As a kid, you read stories that you remember for your whole life," Han says. Her hopeful coming-of-age novels, including the best-selling To All the Boys I've Loved Before and The Summer I Turned Pretty trilogies, center girls entrenched in the heady dramas of first love. Her characters are visceral and easy to root for-whether you're an adolescent relating to them in real time or an adult looking back.