What can you tell us about Love is Louder? SheKnows: Your publisher, Harlequin Teen, is teaming up with the Love is Louder Foundation and even promoting the organization in Speechless. As for adults, I do believe they’re in the best position as authority figures to change the bullying culture in schools, so if Speechless makes any of them more aware of the issue and what they can do to be support systems, I can only be happy about that. I hope teens may take away something about the power their voices have - both for better and for worse. Hannah Harrington: Speechless is a lot about the power of words, how we use them and how we don’t. SheKnows: What do you hope teens will take away from Speechless ? What about adults, since we know they’re actually buying and reading a lot of young adult literature? In middle school, though, I definitely suffered from being bullied, so I relate much more to those experiences. I moved to a new town at the start of my freshman year, and I had a fair amount of friends from different groups and got along with most people. Hannah Harrington: I was lucky enough to be neither in high school. SheKnows: In high school, did you tend more toward the bully or the bullied? From there, I tried to figure out how to up the stakes - what kind of character would have the hardest time being silent, and then what would drive a character that is so talkative to take that step? I built the rest of the story around that idea. Hannah Harrington: The original idea was the concept of someone taking an oath of silence. SheKnows: Why did you decide to make Chelsea a bully herself, before she is bullied? Why make her give up speaking? They’re relevant stories to tell to teens. I think it’s relatable for teens to read about, since they deal with these kinds of issues in their actual lives. Hannah Harrington: I like to write about real issues that teenagers are going through, so I try not to shy away from serious material.

What drives you to write these books based around such serious topics?

SheKnows: You’ve written about suicide and bullying.

Speechless book hannah harrington