Her books have been translated into twelve languages[1] and two of her novels, I Believe in a Thing Called Love and Somewhere Only We Know, have been optioned to be made into feature films by Netflix.

[3] She went to school thinking she was going to become a journalist,[4] and she studied communication and English literature at UC San Diego.

[5] She applied to grad schools for journalism, creative writing, and publishing, ending up getting accepted into all.

[9][10] Her newest young adult novel, Throwback, is about a Korean American generation Z teen getting stuck in the 90s.

[11] Her work has been critically acclaimed and award-winning, receiving multiple starred reviews from Publishers Weekly,[12][13] Kirkus Reviews,[14][15] and Booklist,[citation needed] and has appeared on several "Best Book" lists, including NPR (2017, 2018),[16][17] Cosmo (2019),[18] The Boston Globe (2018),[19] and The New York Public Library (2017, 2018).