Krysten Lindsay Hager is an author, blogger, and podcast guest host for Michigan Avenue Media. She writes about friendship, dating, self-esteem, fitting in, fame, and values. Her work includes YA contemporary books, new adult, and middle grade fiction. She is the author of True Colors, Best Friends...Forever?, Next Door to a Star, Landry in Like, and Competing with the Star, Dating the It Guy, Can Dreams Come True, In Over Her Head: Lights, Camera, Anxiety, Cecily in the City, Stars in the City, and Falling for a Star in the City.
Cecily in the City won the 2023 Readers Favorite Award for best young adult romance. Her debut novel, True Colors, won the Readers Favorite award for best preteen book as well as the Dayton Book Expo Bestseller Award for children/teens. Competing with the Star is a Readers' Favorite Book Award Finalist. Best Friends...Forever? is a 2019 Readers' Favorite Silver Medal Winner. Landry in Like is a Literary Classics Gold Medal recipient and a 2020 Readers' Favorite Bronze Medal Winner. Can Dreams Come True and True Colors were both Wishing Book Shelf Finalists. She received her BA in English and master's degree from the University of Michigan-Flint.
Krysten's work has been featured in USA Today, The Flint Journal, the Grand Haven Tribune, the Beavercreek Current, the Bellbrook Times, Springfield News-Sun, Grand Blanc View, Dayton Daily News and on Living Dayton. She is a frequent guest host on the Michigan Avenue Media podcast with Marsha Casper Cook.
"I write the books I wanted to read growing up. I write for the girl in her room who has had a difficult time with friends and frenemies and not knowing who to trust and may not comfortable with who she is yet. "
Why I Write
I write novels about friendships, dating, hope, love, dealing with self-esteem, & appreciating what makes you unique.
My books have always been about helping readers feel less alone in what they're dealing with & giving hope, comfort, & a happily ever after.
The world always makes us feel like we have to conform to fit in and who we are isn’t enough and my goal is to make my readers feel that what makes you different is what makes you special. I wasted too many years of my life trying to be who the world told me I should be and I want to stop others from having to go through that.
My books deal with self-doubt, romance, and finding where you belong, as well as finding your person. My sister jokes my books are an airing of my grievances, but I like to think I’m just working through issues via my characters to help my readers work through theirs. Either way, the bumps along the road gave me a lot of material.
I’ve been writing since I was a kid, but my mom made me show her I was serious about it my senior year when she signed me up for writing conferences to see if I’d sink or swim. Who knew I’d finally feel like I felt in somewhere…well, fit in-ish. I love reading, TV, watching strangers’ IG stories, and lipstick.
Who knew all those embarrassing, cringe-y moments in middle school and high school could turn into a career? And who would have thought that daydreaming in math class would pay off down the road?