Angie Thomas was a teen rapper before writing the New York Times bestsellers The Hate U Give and On the Come Up.

As a child in Jackson, Mississippi, Angie Thomas was surrounded by civil rights history. But instead of the equality her elders had fought for, she grew up amid poverty and gun violence. When she didn’t see herself in books, she developed a love of hip-hop music and even wrote her own rhymes. Going to a mostly white, affluent college showed her just how different her upbringing was from that of her classmates.

As Thomas grew into adulthood, she became more and more frustrated with the frequent news stories of police officers killing Black men and boys. The Black Lives Matter movement was growing, and Thomas channeled her anger into fiction. Her first book, The Hate U Give, resonated with young people across the country and became an award-winning movie. Explore Angie Thomas’s journey from bullied teenager to famed YA author who inspires young Black readers and writers around the world.