Southern Storytellers

- These are all copies of "The Hate U Give" in different languages and from different countries.

It's been published in over 30 languages now and that's incredible.

That's at our old house, yeah.

I didn't know we were poor.

I didn't know we were struggling sometimes.

I mean, I heard gunshots sometimes, but I thought everybody did.

My mom and my grandmother did a good job of protecting me from a lotta that stuff and shielding me from a lotta that stuff.

- That's the way my parents were.

- That's me, that's fifth grade Christmas party.

I dealt with a lotta bullying in middle school.

I felt like I didn't belong, and I'm tearin' up talking about that, but that's what I think about when I write books, and I write for these kids who often do feel alone is something I get because I went through it in middle school so bad.

- It was hell.

- The bullying really affected my mental health to the point that I was suicidal.

I had a day where I was ready to- - End it.

- End it all.

Take my life.

That's why I write for young people.

That's why I write for that age group, you know.

A lotta times adults are like, "Why write for kids?

Why write for teenagers?

Why do that?"

You know, "You could do something so much more meaningful by writing for adults."

No.

You write for kids now where they are now, and that's the most meaningful time in their lives when you can change their lives, you can save their lives.

So, I take it seriously.

I take it real seriously.