How Jenny Han Went From Taking Orders at Olive Garden to Writing Your Favorite Love Stories

In ELLE’s series Office Hours, we ask people in powerful positions to take us through their first jobs, worst jobs, and everything in between. This month, we spoke with Jenny Han, the bestselling author of the To All the Boys I Loved Before and The Summer I Turned Pretty book series. She’s also brought the beloved coming-of-age stories to the screen as the executive producer of the To All the Boys film trilogy and creator and executive producer of the spin-off, XO, Kitty. And, as the creator and showrunner of The Summer I Turned Pretty’s TV adaptation, she kicked off the series’ third and final season this month, amassing 25 million views globally on Prime Video in a week. While the show is coming to a close, Han has more projects in the works, thanks to an overall deal with Amazon Studios and another season of XO, Kitty on the way. As her literary and cinematic universe continues to expand, the stories still hit close to home. “This idea that you can make mistakes and stumble but you’re still a person that’s worthy of love is something that’s really important to me, and [it’s] something that I think I explore in all my characters,” she says.

What also stands out about her work onscreen is that it revolves around Asian American young women. The To All the Boys film, which came out in 2018 and became a modern classic, marked a rare case of an Asian woman, Lana Condor, leading a rom-com. Lola Tung (who stars as Belly in TSITP) and Anna Cathcart (who plays the titular role in XO, Kitty) are also both of Asian descent. Han, who is Korean, praises the growing representation. “That makes me really proud,” she says. “It’s very exciting to see that.” Below, the multi-hyphenate discusses her unique approach to writing, her go-to advice for authors, and her thoughts on the TSITP fandom.

I had campus jobs, but my first more official job was when I was a server at Olive Garden for a summer. I was the best server you ever had if I only had one or two tables, and then I was a disaster if I had more than two tables.

My go-to [order] was the lunch portion chicken alfredo, but I would add spinach to it, and then I would have a raspberry lemonade, breadsticks, and salad. And then if I’m doing dessert, I’m doing the white chocolate raspberry cheesecake.

When I was first living in New York and I was going to grad school [to get my master’s in creative writing], I was temping on the side. My grad program was only at night, so I worked during the day. Every week, I would be doing something different. Usually I’d just be in some sort of office, and I would be answering the phones or putting in the lunch orders and stuff.

And I was always scared to say if I was proficient at Excel. You made more money if you said that you were, but I was afraid I was going to get asked to make crazy spreadsheets, so then I would never put that [on my resume]. But then I only made $10 an hour. I should have just done that. But I abide by the rules. I was temping probably for a few months, and then I got a job working part-time at a children’s bookstore in the city.

It’s different when I’m writing a novel versus a script. I don’t write in order when I’m writing a novel. I just write whatever I feel compelled to write that day, whatever I’m excited to write about. I call it “dessert first.”

To me, it feels good because then I can gather a bunch of scenes together and figure out the connective tissue and what’s missing and what I need to build on. It feels a lot better when you see you have 40,000 words already. It’s less daunting.

Filmmaking is really collaborative, and you get to work with so many different people, and you really get the benefit of their expertise, creativity, and their wide amount of knowledge. For instance, a production designer [might say], “This color on the walls is going to be better for us because of the light here or there.” When you’re writing a novel, it is a solitary process. It’s just you and the page. So you decide everything, and you are the director, the producer, the production designer, the costume designer. You’re the person who creates the whole world on your own, so that’s very different.

I feel proud when I feel like I understand what my audience wants and I’m able to give it to them. To me, telling stories, making TV, and writing books is really all about connection. I feel really lucky to feel like I am connected to the audience.

I first heard about this in an interview with Nancy Pelosi. They were asking her about being the most hated woman in America. She said, “You’re in the arena; you’ve got to take a punch getting in that arena.” And if you’re not taking hits, then you’re just a “spectator.” That’s really smart for risk-taking or being in the spotlight.

It is really fun to be able to expand out and to tell stories in more mediums. Because the books will always be there for [the fans]. People were dressing up as Lara Jean [from To All the Boys I Loved Before] before the movies. They had their own ideas about who she was and what she would wear, and they would come to my book signings dressed up as her. And people felt connected to Belly’s story when it was just on the page, and now it’s definitely reached a far bigger audience. I would say The Summer I Turned Pretty has always been my most popular story globally, because I think people can put themselves in Belly’s shoes, and you really could be sitting on a Swedish beach, a beach in the Philippines, or really anywhere and imagine that you’re her. It feels very universal.

I’ve always approached telling stories about young people as not really different from telling stories about adults. I think it’s being respectful of that experience and taking it seriously. To me, the most important thing is to really honor that and see that a young person’s experience is valid and their point of view is valid. They haven’t lived as long yet, and they have a more limited experience because they’re younger, but that doesn’t make it any less important or real.

If you have a big fight with your best friend and you’re in high school, it can be very earth-shattering. It can really destabilize your whole existence. I don’t feel that’s any less real or important than something happening to an adult. Those feelings are the same, and sometimes they’re even deeper because you’re experiencing it for the first time, and you don’t know yet that it will get better and you just have to keep going. You haven’t been able to experience that yet. Sometimes you just need time to heal, and so it can feel really intense and sharp. The first time is always going to be a shock to the system in some ways.

Gavin [Casalegno] is filming a movie right now in Thailand with Lana [Condor], and they FaceTimed me this morning. It’s been very cool to see the two of them working together. And then Lola [Tung] actually was on Broadway in Hadestown with Jordan Fisher, who was also in the To All the Boys universe.

We all know each other very well. When you’re working on set, you’re together for sometimes 12 hours a day. We were in Wilmington, which is a small beach town in North Carolina. I would stay there the whole time because I was just really focused on the work. Everyone was doing that; people weren’t leaving a ton. You really bond working on something together. It really does have that theater-troupe feeling. I think it’s also that feeling of, we are experiencing this thing together, and we’re really in it together. That’s unique.

I’m protective over the cast, and I just like to remind people that everyone sees what you’re saying online, and there are real people who are playing these characters. I don’t think it’s easy to be in the public eye and have people dissecting everything about you. I don’t think that’s healthy for anybody. I think the Summer I Turned Pretty cast aren’t super online. I want to do what I can to protect them, but also I really love the audience as well.

It’s always really fun to see people celebrating and having their watch parties. People are so smart and funny and create really fun videos around the show that I enjoy watching. That can be just rewarding too, to see people do their own thing with it.

If I was going to say there’s a message, it’s just to know that everyone is human, people make mistakes, but you’re still somebody who’s worthy of love.

I’m working on a couple of movies. I’m developing a series, but nothing I could speak to at the moment. It’s too soon.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.