Green published The Fault in Our Stars in 2012, which was met with overwhelmingly positive critical acclaim and was adapted into a film in 2015. In 2007, Green began a videoblog with his brother, Hank, which is regularly updated and has led to a number of other media projects and humanitarian fundraising. Although it's his least popular novel, it is the novel most commonly taught in schools, which he hypothesizes is because it contains the fewest mentions of sex out of all his novels. His second, An Abundance of Katherines, was published the following year. His first novel, Looking for Alaska, was published in 2005 and became an immediate success. However, his experience working at the hospital, coupled with another job writing book reviews for Booklist, inspired him to begin taking writing seriously. Following graduation, he worked as a student chaplain at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Ohio with the intent of becoming an Episcopal priest.

He has said he studied mostly Mark Twain and Islam. In 2000, Green graduated from Kenyon College with a double major in English and religious studies. He graduated from Indian Springs School in Alabama. John Green was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, though he grew up primarily in Orlando, Florida.

Summary of turtles all the way down