Helen Hoang

Helen Hoang (born 1982) is an American romance novelist.

Quotes

• As I researched, I ran into this very interesting thing where autism seems to display differently in women than in men ... women have learned to mask their autism, and they learn to copy their peers, and they learn to mimic…
  • On what she discovered while researching autism (in part to better understand herself) for her novel The Bride Test in “In Helen Hoang's Novels, Autism Is No Bar To Love And Happiness” in NPR (2019 May 5)

• I want to believe that I can be a main character, I can be a leading character in my life, that I can have a happily ever after, that I can find true love, and I can get married, and conquer, and be happy…
  • On writing about characters with autism in “In Helen Hoang's Novels, Autism Is No Bar To Love And Happiness” in NPR (2019 May 5)

• Escaping from Vietnam is a huge. It takes a massive amount of bravery, but starting over in a foreign country with a foreign language with no money with everyone depending on you, with racism and sexism, that’s something else entirely. That’s something that she never spoke to me about. I think she did that because she was protecting me. She wanted me to stay innocent. All I saw was her accomplishments, and I thought it was easy — that it was easy to be an immigrant and start over in a place that isn’t entirely kind to you. With this book, I wanted to illustrate that missing part of the story that she didn’t tell me, because it’s important and it might be even harder than escaping from Vietnam.
  • On finally realizing the pitfalls of the immigrant experience through the eyes of her mother in “Helen Hoang on how her mother's immigrant story inspired The Bride Test” in Entertainment Weekly (2019 Apr 30)

• Two stereotypes I’ve seen is that autistic people are geniuses. Some autistic people have average intelligence and I think don’t think that’s right to say they all are because those who aren’t might feel disappointed. Another is that autistic people lack empathy or heartless.
  • On how she sees autistic people portrayed in popular culture in “In 'The Kiss Quotient', Helen Hoang uses writing to process her Autism diagnosis” in NBC News (2018 Jul 5)