The Badass Behind Your Girlfriend's Favorite Movie

Last summer, our nation was swept away by the tale of Hazel and Augustus, two young cancer patients that fall in love, and every cynic in the nation rolled it's eyes in disgust at another teen love movie. If I hadn't read the book long before the movie came out, I would have, too. But this teen love story is not a teen love story at all. John Green, author of Looking for Alaska, Paper Towns, and an Abundance of Katherines, created a novel for young adults that addresses very mature and heavy issues like death, afterlife, the measure of what makes a good life, terminal illnesses, and whether it is better to be loved deeply or widely. The movie brushes on these topics about as well as one could expect a movie to in 2 hours, but of course coats it in the sugar of young love to sell tickets. What I'm saying is, read the book; it's worth your time and it's a better work of art.

But I really wanted to bring to light the author behind this novel, John Green, because he is not just an author; he is a Vlogbrother. In the early 2000's John Green and his brother Hank Green decided to send daily videos back and forth to each other through YouTube. These videos were so witty, intelligent, and meaningful that their vlogs to each other collected a group of admierers, followers, and eventually, subscribers. Since then, Vlogbrothers has propelled Hank and John into the YouTube stratosphere, allowing them to expand the ways that they can reach new members of their community with increasing popularity.

I should warn you, watching just one video from the Vlogbrothers channel is nearly impossible; but if you're prepared to fall into a wonderful rabbit hole, you should start with this video. Fair warning, it's a poor quality video, but this was when they were still... youngish. Their video quality is much better now.

#video #photo