About the author

Shoilee Banerjee was born on 13th July 2000 in Boston, Massachusetts, and grew up near Boston in the United States. There she lived with her older brother, Sindhu, and her two parents. Since she was young, she relied on writing to explain the world around her (and even the ones in her imagination).

At age nine, she wrote her first novel about a dragon and his adventures. While it was clearly the work of a fourth grader, it taught her that writing would always hold a special place in her life. Throughout her childhood, she won many national writing competitions such as those for science and short stories. As she grew older her love of writing and helping others only increased.

At the age of fourteen, when she reached high school, she noticed that many of her close friends and even strangers around her struggled with mental illnesses. For some of these people, their illnesses were mild, but for others, they were debilitating. While she knew she was not a doctor or a therapist, she decided she would bring more attention to the issue with whatever power she had: writing.

She immediately got to work by crafting a novel. By the age of nineteen, she had gotten it published, its center theme being mental health in minority populations.

Shoilee currently studies Public Health at college in Massachusetts and continues to advocate for those who have a hard time finding their own voice and for those who have already found theirs. She is currently an infectious disease researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital—the same hospital where she was born. She is also an actress and singer. Occasionally, she reads her work from when she was younger and laughs.