About
J. J. Johnson (she/her) is a writer, editor, artist, youth mentor, and social-justice worker. She is a queer white woman dedicated to creating beloved community while dismantling white supremacy.
J. J. grew up in a small town in central New York in the time before people knew that smart, well-behaved girls could secretly suffer from ADHD, anxiety, depression, and OCD.
At fifteen, J. J. was hospitalized for an eating disorder. In this in-patient setting and subsequent outpatient treatment, J. J. re-learned the value of genuine friendships, honesty, hope, and kindness. She took pains to stabilize her health and committed herself to a path of recovery.
J. J. went on to study history at Binghamton University, later earning a summa cum laude Master of Education in Adolescent Risk and Prevention from Harvard.
She then moved with her partner to North Carolina, where she resumed her career in youth mentorship and advocacy.
Through every season of life and change of address, J. J. has benefitted from supportive family and friends, good teachers, and generous librarians. She has always scribbled in journals, written stories and articles, and jotted notes on any paper within reach. In other words: J. J. is a learner, a reader, and a writer, through and through.
Her young-adult novels Believarexic, The Theory of Everything, and This Girl is Different have received numerous awards and have been translated into six languages. J. J. writes weekly essays about life, justice, and spirituality at Notes from an Unruly Quaker. Her musings have also appeared in Friends (Quaker) Journal, Indy Week, The Urban Hiker, School Library Journal, Ithaca Times, The Evening Sun, and Coup de Tête. She is also an editor and writing coach.
As part of her commitment to building beloved community, J. J. facilitates restorative-justice circles within the Restorative Justice Durham community and offers writing courses to formerly incarcerated neighbors. She also serves on the Book Harvest Authors Circle.
J. J. is a nondogmatic, unruly Quaker who loves to laugh, dance, travel, build, paint, read, hike, roller-skate, collaborate, daydream, and eat cookie dough.
She lives in Durham, North Carolina, which is the traditional and ancestral homeland of the Eno, Tutelo, Saponi, Occaneechi, and Shakori peoples. She supports Land Back to all Indigenous peoples with her words and money.
J. J. shares her home with her family and rescued dog. She shares her porches and yard with Carolina wrens, cardinals, brown thrashers, passionflower vines, wisteria, daffodils, irises, daisies, lazy hens, cicada broods, vegetable patches, faerie folk, and a community Little Free Library.
She dreams of, and works for, a world where everyone belongs.
J. J. grew up in a small town in central New York in the time before people knew that smart, well-behaved girls could secretly suffer from ADHD, anxiety, depression, and OCD.
At fifteen, J. J. was hospitalized for an eating disorder. In this in-patient setting and subsequent outpatient treatment, J. J. re-learned the value of genuine friendships, honesty, hope, and kindness. She took pains to stabilize her health and committed herself to a path of recovery.
J. J. went on to study history at Binghamton University, later earning a summa cum laude Master of Education in Adolescent Risk and Prevention from Harvard.
She then moved with her partner to North Carolina, where she resumed her career in youth mentorship and advocacy.
Through every season of life and change of address, J. J. has benefitted from supportive family and friends, good teachers, and generous librarians. She has always scribbled in journals, written stories and articles, and jotted notes on any paper within reach. In other words: J. J. is a learner, a reader, and a writer, through and through.
Her young-adult novels Believarexic, The Theory of Everything, and This Girl is Different have received numerous awards and have been translated into six languages. J. J. writes weekly essays about life, justice, and spirituality at Notes from an Unruly Quaker. Her musings have also appeared in Friends (Quaker) Journal, Indy Week, The Urban Hiker, School Library Journal, Ithaca Times, The Evening Sun, and Coup de Tête. She is also an editor and writing coach.
As part of her commitment to building beloved community, J. J. facilitates restorative-justice circles within the Restorative Justice Durham community and offers writing courses to formerly incarcerated neighbors. She also serves on the Book Harvest Authors Circle.
J. J. is a nondogmatic, unruly Quaker who loves to laugh, dance, travel, build, paint, read, hike, roller-skate, collaborate, daydream, and eat cookie dough.
She lives in Durham, North Carolina, which is the traditional and ancestral homeland of the Eno, Tutelo, Saponi, Occaneechi, and Shakori peoples. She supports Land Back to all Indigenous peoples with her words and money.
J. J. shares her home with her family and rescued dog. She shares her porches and yard with Carolina wrens, cardinals, brown thrashers, passionflower vines, wisteria, daffodils, irises, daisies, lazy hens, cicada broods, vegetable patches, faerie folk, and a community Little Free Library.
She dreams of, and works for, a world where everyone belongs.