When I was a teenager, my cousins and I lived for People Magazine. We would save up our money and as soon as we had enough, we’d race to Walgreens or the grocery store to buy the latest issue. Spoiler alert: I was a teenager before the internet was a thing.

I suppose I’ve always been a sucker for celebrities, but growing up in small-town Minnesota, with not a lot of money, made all of those glamorous things you see in magazines just that much more glam-o-rous. Reading People was my equivalent of getting on a plane and flying to another country, something I didn’t get to do in real life until I was well into my 20s.

So when my editor sent me an email last week saying my book, NOT SO FAST, was going to be in the June 9th issue of People Magazine? My teenage self squealed and kicked her feet, while my present-day self shed an actual tear. Because I put a lot of hard work into my books and it doesn’t always get recognized or seen by a whole lot of people. This will be seen by a whole lot of people. And I couldn’t be more grateful. If you happen to catch it on shelves, I hope you’ll think of me, or at the very least your teenage self and all of the amazing things you’ve done to impress the person you used to be.