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
