Laurie Halse Anderson is an outstanding writer when it comes to both nonfiction and fiction novels for both the age groups of adolescents and teens. Her journey started when she was born on October 23, 1961. She lived in Potsdam, New York as she was growing up with her parents Frank and Joyce Halse. As she hit second grade, her love for reading flourished. Her Aunt Jane would supply Laurie throughout the years with all the books she could ever dream of. Her father was a minister in a church, so her upbringing was considered pretty religious. However, her mother did not pick a side when it came to religions, so there became a lot of tension in Laurie’s household as her mother and father began to struggle with alcohol addiction. Laurie was sexually assaulted by a senior in high school at the age of 13. Laurie’s family put her into silence and shame, which led to her moving to Denmark on a pig farm as a foreign exchange student when she was a senior in high school. Living in Denmark allowed Laurie Anderson the opportunity for her to attend Onondaga Community College. Even though her mother doubted her career choices, Laurie transferred to Georgetown University in 1981, where she studied vigorously and  received her BS in Language and Linguistics in 1984.

A year before Laurie graduated from Georgetown University, she met and married Greg Anderson and had two daughters; Stephanie Halcomb and Meridith Lauren. They moved out to Philadelphia to start their family life after Laurie graduated college. As Laurie raised her two daughters, she took courses on writing and eventually became a freelance reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer and she soon started writing short stories on the side. Ndito Runs would become her first picture book that she would ever publish. The success of this picture book led Laurie to have a platform to start on as she started to create more famous short stories. As she gained in popularity through children’s books, Laurie continued to struggle with her experience of sexual assault. Late one night, Laurie woke up from a nightmare she was having about a young girl who was crying. This vision would soon become Melinda, who is the main character in her famous novel, Speak. Speak follows a 13 year old girl who is about to become a freshman in high school. Melinda is sexually assaulted at a party the summer before her freshman year. She calls 911, which leads to her dealing with emotions of isolation, anger, and fear as she navigates through her freshman year of high school. It is through this book that Laurie Halse Anderson will find her voice to speak up about her experience with sexual assault.

Because of her experience with sexual assault, Laurie Halse Anderson will go on the create the nonfiction novel Shout. This novel is a collection of poems that Laurie writes about her childhood, as well as how she coped with the scary emotions that are paired with a traumatic experience. Laurie’s poems are truly chilling as she gets into the specific details of what challenges a sexual assault survivor has to deal with. She uses this book as a cry to the universe, which results in a ferocious call to action. After she published Shout, many people who suffered with similar experiences all came rushing to her as they knew that there was someone who could relate to them. Laurie Halse Anderson felt overwhelmed, but she realized that this could be her chance to fight back against the assumptions that victims should fall into silence and isolation instead of speaking up about their stories. Laurie Halse Anderson continues to stand as an important figure in the #MeToo movement, which empowers survivors to tell their story and to not be shameful that they have experienced sexual assault. To this day, her books Speak and Shout stands as testaments that talking about topics, such as sexual assault, is an important step if society is to move forward from the stigmas of rape culture. Because of these books, she ended up winning the Scott O’Dell Award, the ALAN Award, and has been put on the New York Times Bestsellers list.

While Laurie Halse Andersonv is known for her books that empower people who are victims of sexual assault, she has also written other books that have pushed her popularity to where it stands today. One of her other very popular books she has written is titled Fever 1793. This book follows a sixteen year old girl as she experiences the yellow fever epidemic in 1793. She watches as her entire community is ravaged by Yellow Fever as well as her grandfather and mother. She also has to witness the tragedy of thousands of people dying from this epidemic throughout the book. This novel highlights how a girl copes with tragedy at a young age. Some other books that Laurie Halse Anderson has published are Chains, which is about a 13 year old girl named Isabel. She is spying on the rebels during the Revolutionary War when she meets a girl named Curzon, who is the narrator in the sequel book Forge. In her book Catalyst, it starts off with a girl named Teri. It highlights her experiences as she navigates through college whilst dealing with the loss of her late mother. As she is in college, she meets a girl named Teri, who she is able to become friends with through their shared grief. Along with her novels, she has composed a multitude of children’s books, such as Ndito Runs, Turkey Pox, No Time for Mother’s Day, and Thank you Sarah. Her combined popularity in Children’s and Teenage books has sculpted the famous author that she has now become.