About J. J.
J. J. Johnson (she/her) has been a writer all her life, since the first time she put crayon to paper. She is also an editor, artist, youth mentor, and social-justice worker.
She grew up in a very small town in central New York in the 1980s. At fifteen, J. J. was hospitalized for bulimarexia (a diagnosis no longer in use). During her ten-week inpatient treatment, J. J. leaned into support, stabilized her health, and committed to eating-disorder recovery.
J. J. graduated high school in good health and went on to study history at Binghamton University. She later earned a Master of Education from Harvard, where she focused on Adolescent Risk and Prevention.
After graduate school, J. J. moved with her partner to Durham, North Carolina, where she resumed her work in youth advocacy and social-justice activism—and kept writing.
Her young-adult novels Believarexic, The Theory of Everything, and This Girl is Different have received numerous awards and been translated into six languages.
J. J. writes weekly-ish essays on the intersection of social justice and spirituality at Notes from an Unruly Quaker. Her creative nonfiction has also appeared in School Library Journal, IndyWeek, The Urban Hiker, Coup de Tête, Evening Sun, The Ithaca Times, and The Elmira Star Gazette.
J. J. is a queer, neurodivergent, white, (unruly) Quaker. All of her work grows from her core values of justice, equality, community, and simplicity.
She is a facilitator with Restorative Justice Durham; teaches writing in two North Carolina prisons; and collaborates, confides, and works in coalition with friends of almost every background imaginable. Insatiably curious, J. J. loves to read, learn, explore, dance, and roller-skate.
She lives with her family in a small house with an untidy garden. Her family has a rescued dog named Taco and three beloved hens in the backyard. J. J.'s mom lives next door.
She grew up in a very small town in central New York in the 1980s. At fifteen, J. J. was hospitalized for bulimarexia (a diagnosis no longer in use). During her ten-week inpatient treatment, J. J. leaned into support, stabilized her health, and committed to eating-disorder recovery.
J. J. graduated high school in good health and went on to study history at Binghamton University. She later earned a Master of Education from Harvard, where she focused on Adolescent Risk and Prevention.
After graduate school, J. J. moved with her partner to Durham, North Carolina, where she resumed her work in youth advocacy and social-justice activism—and kept writing.
Her young-adult novels Believarexic, The Theory of Everything, and This Girl is Different have received numerous awards and been translated into six languages.
J. J. writes weekly-ish essays on the intersection of social justice and spirituality at Notes from an Unruly Quaker. Her creative nonfiction has also appeared in School Library Journal, IndyWeek, The Urban Hiker, Coup de Tête, Evening Sun, The Ithaca Times, and The Elmira Star Gazette.
J. J. is a queer, neurodivergent, white, (unruly) Quaker. All of her work grows from her core values of justice, equality, community, and simplicity.
She is a facilitator with Restorative Justice Durham; teaches writing in two North Carolina prisons; and collaborates, confides, and works in coalition with friends of almost every background imaginable. Insatiably curious, J. J. loves to read, learn, explore, dance, and roller-skate.
She lives with her family in a small house with an untidy garden. Her family has a rescued dog named Taco and three beloved hens in the backyard. J. J.'s mom lives next door.