Wendelin Van Draanen

Wendelin Van Draanen (born January 6, 1965) is an American writer of children's and young-adult fiction. Van Draanen was born in Chicago, Illinois. One of her very early influences was Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury. According to the author, the book was "about the magic of growing up and [it] reminded me of all the wonderful mischief my brothers and I got into when we were young". Bradbury's work inspired Van Draanen to write How I Survived Being a Girl, which was published by HarperCollins in 1997. Other early influences include Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, and Encyclopedia Brown.

In college, the Van Draanen family business was burned down, leading to financial hardship. Wendelin turned to writing to alleviate stress and she published her first book in 1997, titled How I Survived Being a Girl.Van Draanen is the daughter of two chemists who immigrated from the Netherlands. Before she became a full-time writer she was a high school math teacher and computer science teacher.Van Draanen lives in San Luis Obispo, California, with her husband Mark Parsons and two sons, Colton and Connor.