Nicola Yoon says classic teen movies helped inspire her first fictional short story with husband and fellow author David Yoon, Safe Harbor, according to E! News. The couple also drew from their own experience raising a 14-year-old daughter.
In an exclusive interview, Yoon said she and David have been sharing some of their favorite older films with their daughter, and that movies like Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club were part of the creative spark. She said they both enjoy stories with large casts and were especially inspired by The Breakfast Club.
Yoon said they wanted to write about the kinds of difficult things teenagers deal with, noting that young people face many of the same struggles adults do, often for the first time. In Safe Harbor, the story follows Isabel, a young artist who meets other teens while attending a therapy program at Safe Harbor as she deals with her parents’ divorce.
Yoon also said the project brought back a sense of healthy competition between her and her husband, whom she met in graduate school and has been with for 27 years. She said the collaboration created something that sounded like neither of them alone, but instead like a new voice they built together.
For Yoon, one of the story’s key themes is the moment teenagers realize their parents are flawed people too. She said she hopes readers take from the story the idea that families will make mistakes, but can work through them together with grace.
