Sarah Dessen is an award-winning novelist who has published thirteen (soon to be fourteen) books that have been read by young adults all over the world. As a young adult author, she is able to captivate readers with her ability to write realistic issues that teenagers face today. She is one of the most popular contemporary fiction authors of her time, with over 10 books published and has sold over a million copies in over 20 countries.

Prior to becoming the New York Times Bestseller, Dessen attended the University of North Carolina where she graduated with honors in creative writing. Her first published novel That Summer was published in 1996. That Summer released a message of how teenagers should be able to focus on the future and release their pasts in order to move forward. Along with novels, storylines from books, That Summer and Someone Like You were put into the movie “How To Deal” in 2003. As far as we know, Dessen is currently not working on making any of her books into another movie as far as the people know. We can always hope though.

In 2017, Dessen was awarded the Margaret A. Edwards Award from the American Library Association for outstanding contribution to young adult literature for her novels: Keeping the Moon, Dreamland, This Lullaby, The Truth about Forever, Just Listen, Along for the Ride, and What Happened to Goodbye. Keeping the Moon and Just Listen, are personally some of my favorite works of literature by her. Keeping the Moon tells the story of a former overweight teenage girl who goes to stay with her aunt while her mother goes on tour as a fitness trainer. She begins to have self-esteem issues and gains the help of her two new friends, Isabel and Morgan, as well as Norman. While Just Listen is about Annabel, the picture perfect “girl who has everything” but ever since her sister came back from rehab for an eating disorder, and her best friend dropped her, she has no one to eat with at lunch, and is losing herself, until she meets Owen, a music fanatic, he helps Annabel tackle her family drama and face the truth of her past.

Dessen is a brilliant author whose books are loved by people all over the world. Her books give young adults a sense of hope and the message that they can get through anything with the help of love and family. We are lucky to know that she continues to write the YA romance novels of our dreams! With her next book “The Rest of the Story” to be released in June 2019. If you want to get updates about her books, and fingers crossed, any Netflix movie deals (a la Jenny Han and To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before) you can find her on Instagram @stdessen or @sarahdessen on twitter and on her website sarahdessen.com.

Have you read any of Sarah Dessen’s books? Tell us what you thought in the comments!