Stephanie Kuehnert got her start writing bad poetry about unrequited love and razor blades in eighth grade. In high school, she discovered punk rock and produced several D.I.Y. feminist zines. She received her MFA in creative writing from Columbia College Chicago. Her first YA novel, I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone, was published by MTV Books in July 2008, and her second, Ballads of Suburbia was published in July 2009. In addition to writing novels, she is a teacher and was a staff writer for ROOKIE, the acclaimed online magazine for teenage girls. Stephanie lives in Seattle with her husband and two cats.