Veronica Roth, the author of the Divergent series, is an author who's first book was published in 2011. Although this book was published very recently, she has already caught the attention of most young adult readers. Read more to learn about her personal life and what started Divergent.
Background Life
Birth date: August 19, 1988 (New York City, New York)
Age: 26
Background Life
Birth date: August 19, 1988 (New York City, New York)
Age: 26
Although Veronica Roth was born in New York City, she grew up in Barrington, IL, a small suburb in Chicago. Her parents are Barbara Ross and Frank Ross. She attended Carleton College in Minnesota for one year but was then transferred to NorthWestern University in Chicago. She graduated in 2010 with a degree in creative writing. In 2011 she married Nelson Fitch, and they now live in Evanston, IL. Writing has always been a big part of Veronica's life. It is something she has always enjoyed. Being an author was something she knew she would like doing. She started writing Divergent when she was a freshmen at Carleton College. It became a huge hit! She is not currently writing any more books. However, she does write on her blog frequently.
What is Divergent?
This book takes place in the future of America where a girl who lives in a large city has to make the biggest decision of her life. In the city that Beatrice (Tris) Prior lives in, society is split into five different factions. You are placed into your faction based on your personality. Amity is for the kind, Candor is for the honest, Dauntless is for the brave, Abnegation is for the selfless, and Erudite is for the intelligent. Tris was born into the Abnegation faction, but she soon gets to chose whether she wants to stay with her family or tranfer to a different faction and leave her family behind forever. In order for her to find out which faction she would be best in, she is required to take a test. After taking the test, the results show that she is divergent. This means she can't be put into only one faction. It also means that she is in danger. The government has been trying to hunt down the divergents. Tris transfers to the Dauntless faction where she struggles to make it through initiation and, above all, struggles to keep her divergence a secret.
Inspiration for Writing Divergent
Veronica claims to have many things that inspired her to write this book. One of those things was her Psychology class that she was taking at the time. She had been learning about exposure therapy in the treatment of phobias. It is a technique that involves the exposure to a feared object without any danger, this way you could learn to overcome that fear. This is where she got the idea for Dauntless initiation.
Another thing that inspired her was a song she was listening to on her way to Minnesota. The song was "Sweet Sacrifice" by Evanescence. When she heard the lyric "fear is only in our minds/ but it's taking over us all the time" she thought of a person jumping off a roof. When she tried figuring out why someone would do this, she came up with the Dauntless faction.
She came up with the idea of Faction Systems because she loved groups (such as the different houses in Hogwarts), she loved personality tests, and she was very fascinated with government systems.
Another thing that inspired her was a song she was listening to on her way to Minnesota. The song was "Sweet Sacrifice" by Evanescence. When she heard the lyric "fear is only in our minds/ but it's taking over us all the time" she thought of a person jumping off a roof. When she tried figuring out why someone would do this, she came up with the Dauntless faction.
She came up with the idea of Faction Systems because she loved groups (such as the different houses in Hogwarts), she loved personality tests, and she was very fascinated with government systems.
Books she has Written
* Divergent
* Insurgent
* Allegiant
* Four: A Divergent Collection
* Insurgent
* Allegiant
* Four: A Divergent Collection