Her debut novel You Should See Me in a Crown (2020) received critical acclaim, including a Stonewall Book Award Honor.

[3] Johnson went on to be the editor-in-chief of her high school's newspaper as well as a tennis player and a member of the show and concert choirs.

[3][4] While in college at Indiana University Bloomington, she interned at the Wall Street Journal, WFIU, and WPLN.

[4] Johnson began the manuscript for her debut novel You Should See Me in a Crown in 2018 as a graduate student at Sarah Lawrence College.

[5] You Should See Me in a Crown centers a Black queer teenager who runs for Prom Queen to win a college scholarship.

[2] Johnson described the book as "very much an homage to the work that I love the most...John Hughes movies of the eighties, the teen romantic comedies of the late '90s, early aughts...

"[11] Ellie Engle Saves Herself was shortlisted for the 2024 Lambda Literary Award for Middle Grade Literature.

[14] In November 2024, Johnson released an anthology titled Black Girl Power through Freedom Fire Press, a Disney imprint.