[2] Vivian moved to Philadelphia after high school where she attended the University of the Arts and graduated in 2001 with a degree in Writing for Film and Television.

[3] Vivian then moved back to New York City where she earned an MFA in Creative Writing: Children's Literature from The New School.

Her most recent solo book, The List, inspired by true events at a high school in New Jersey, was published in 2012 and earned the ALA 2013 Best Fiction for Young Adults, was a Junior Library Guild Selection,[8] and was a best seller in France.

[10] In the June 19, 2016 edition of the New York Times Book Review, Vivian placed at number 2 in the Young Adult E-book category for The List.

[11] In November 2019, Vivian faced criticism for her tweets regarding Brooke Nelson, a college student who was mentioned in her local newspaper as saying she thought that author Sarah Dessen's YA novels were not suitable for the Common Read program run by Northern State University, Aberdeen.