An Interview with Justina Chen Headley

Justina Chen Headley has thoroughly impressed me with her kindness, her thoughtfulness, and her novel NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH (and a few white lies). If you haven't picked up this book yet, please do.

Now, let's dive into our interview!

The title for your first YA novel is bound to grab readers. Was the second part (and a few white lies) meant to have a double meaning, referring to both untruths and racial identity, or was that a happy accident?

Justina: There's nothing harder to write than the book's title. I'm being serious! I went through 20 titles until I hit upon this-and even then, I angsted that it was way too long. Sheesh, how many more words can I stick on the cover? But my editor liked it, and so did sales & marketing at Little, Brown. So that was that.

And you nailed it-the title plays on both the white lies we tell ourselves as well as how my main character is half-white.

From happy to hapa - Can you explain to readers what that phrase means, and when it was that you first heard it? Do you find it offensive, empowering, or a little of everything?

Justina: "Hapa" was originally a derogatory Hawaiian term for someone who is half-Chinese, but it's since become a term of power-even though a lot of people now use "mixed race" since it's more inclusive. I first heard "hapa" in a conversation with one of my friends at Stanford who's from Hawaii. I love "hapa" since one of my intentions with this novel was to show that we can redefine ourselves just as we can redefine labels.

In this book, Patty gets shipped off to math camp by an incredibly strict mother who wants her daughter to excel. Did you ever attend an accelerated academic summer session? What school subjects were your favorites when you were a teen?

Justina: TRUTH: math and I don't compute!

So even though there was no math camp in any of my summers, when I was in high school, I went to this amazing political science camp at Stanford where we got to meet community leaders at the national, state and local levels. Talking to people who were making things happen is one reason why I've committed to tying philanthropy to every book that I publish.