Beyond first loves and heartbreaks

Stephanie Perkins tackles individuality, youth rebellion

Text by Fiona Patricia S. Escandor
Photos by Arni Aclao

 

STEPHANIE Perkins was the kind of kid who would open her closet just to see if it would, by any chance, lead her to Narnia. A wide reader at a young age and a huge fan of the works of C.S. Lewis, J.K. Rowling and Roald Dahl among many others, she said it was her love for books that opened her doors to writing. Today, the North Carolina storyteller has three books under her belt, an upcoming short stories collection this October, and a horror novel due next year.

“It was my great love for stories that fueled my writing. When I was little, my mom would read me stories in bed—way past the age it was considered cool. It was my favorite thing in the world,” she shared.

Stephanie had jobs in libraries and book shops, and then eventually pursued creative writing in college. Recalling the first time she saw her published work, she said, “It was the best feeling in the world, so incredible and surreal.”

Last July, Stephanie was in Cebu and Manila for book signing events hosted by National Book Store. Stephanie is best known for her bestselling young adult romance series: Anna and the French Kiss, Lola and the Boy Next Door and Isla and the Happily Ever After—the latter released just last Aug. 15.

Though she has different protagonists for each story, and has it set in three different locations (Paris, San Francisco and New York), the series are companion novels existing in one universe. Expectedly, her tales dabble in first loves and heartbreaks, but it also tackles issues such as individuality, homosexuality, drugs and teenage rebellion.

Anna and the French Kiss was regarded as National Public Radio’s Best Teen Reads in 2010, while Lola and the Boy Next Door was included in Young Adult Library Services Association’s Best Fiction for Young Adults List in 2012 and American Library Association’s Book List in 2013.

As for Stephanie’s next project to be released this October, it has a purely feel-good and heartwarming vibe, that’s set for the approaching holiday season. Titled My True Love Gave to Me, it is a collection of 12 short stories written by renowned young adult fiction authors and edited by Stephanie.

“They all trusted me to edit their work,” Stephanie said, citing authors such as David Levithan, Rainbow Rowell and Jenny Han to be part of it.

Battle with depression

Anna was published in 2010, Lola in 2011, and then Isla just this year. The two-year delay to the third installment, Stephanie revealed, was brought about by her battle with depression, an issue she has since been public about.

“I opened publicly about it and over the past year I’ve had an amazing interaction with people who have responded to it in a personal and positive way,” she said. “They became a huge part of the healing process.”

Stephanie has since been adamant on inspiring readers who are going through a similar experience, especially her adolescent readers, as she herself did not have easy teenage years.

“It’s wonderful writing for teens because teen stories are exciting, everything is happening the first time. But the best thing, really, is getting to meet the readers and talking to them and say, ‘I’ve been there and you’ll be okay’, and they’re saying it back to me, too.”

As for Stephanie, the people who helped her during those troubled times as a teen were her friends from the LGBT community. “The people who got me through those years were gay men,” she said. “They noticed my struggles and assured me that once out of high school, it gets better.”

Her good friends in the LGBT community later inspired Stephanie to have a gay couple, Andy and Nathan Nolan, as Lola’s parents in Lola and the French Kiss. “It’s important for me to have a story in which it’s not an issue, where it’s not a ‘thing’. I’m most proud of those characters and they were never difficult to write,” she said.

Fictional worlds

Stephanie now lives in North Carolina with her husband, Jarrod, of wizard rock band Gred and Forge. To the uninitiated, wizard rock is a young music genre characterized by songs about the Harry Potter universe — one of the fictional worlds that also enamored Stephanie as a young reader.

Weekdays are spent writing, and weekends are spent curling up in front of the television watching her favorite shows. “I sit in front of the TV and I watch hours and hours of television until I fall asleep. I’m also a huge movie buff — that can get me out of the house even on a deadline. My favorite movie is Trainspotting by Danny Boyle.”

Then next to Stephanie and Jarrod on that couch is a spot reserved for their cat, Mr. Tumnus, named after that fictional faun with an umbrella that greeted young Lucy Pevensie — and Stephanie, for that matter — into the world of Narnia, and inadvertently the world of storytelling.