Ellen Hopkins Biography Essay Example

Inspiration to craft an impeccably executed novel does not just strike one overnight. However, personal experiences can easily be manipulated at an author's will in order to create a story to their liking. Ellen Hopkins, a 66 year old verse novelist, has always written from experiences. Albert C. Wagner and Valeria adopted Ellen L. Hopkins in 1955 in Long Beach, CA (Hopkins). She became interested in poetry at age nine where she published her first poem in the Palm Springs Desert Sun (Ellen L. Hopkins). Ellen continued to practice poetry and decided that in the future, she wanted to become a writer. A few years passed until she married her first husband and had her first two children, Jason and Cristal. When they divorced, Ellen had her second daughter, Kelly. Kelly’s father was very abusive and manipulative towards Ellen (Hopkins). Thankfully, she was able to end this toxic relationship and met John Hopkins, her current husband. Cristal, Ellen's oldest daughter, became addicted to crystal methamphetamine and went to prison for two years.  This would be what sparked the beginning of Ellen's novel career (Pavao). Ellen's family challenges inspired  her to write about issues in  society  needing to be brought to light.. She wrote her first novel Crank and released it in 2004. Crank is the first story written about Cristal's struggles with meth. Since then, Ellen has released 10+ books directed at young adult audiences. Ellen Hopkins writes to tell her daughter's story, expose young readers to raw life topics, and tell her own story about the horrors of abusive relationships and the consequences of her daughter's addiction on her family.

Cristal’s story was the first influential factor of Ellen’s writings. Hopkins created this New York Times best-selling verse novel to fully understand what her own decisions could have done to promote her daughter's addiction (Hopkins). She not only wrote this novel to make teenagers aware of the horror of addiction, but she also wanted to get educated herself to help her daughter recover. Sadly, after her daughter was clean, she relapsed, which led to the creation of Glass, the sequel to Crank, and a continuation of Cristal’s story. In an interview with Kate Pavao, Ellen Hopkins revealed that Crank is about 60% based on her daughter's story, whereas Glass is closer to 70% accurate (Pavao). Ellen still has to dramatize the story to create an engaging novel for her readers, but she still stays true to her life and continues to write based on her own experiences with her daughter. 

Inspiration also comes from her friend's and family's stories. Ellen writes other novels based on their experiences to teach youth about the dangers of addiction, prostitution, mental health, and more. With her expertise in all poetry forms, Hopkins knows how to engage her young adult audience, even those who are not avid readers. She uses metaphors, alliteration, vivid imagery, and heightened language to help teenagers relate and subconsciously connect them to her works (Pattee 595). Hopkins also uses very few words on her pages to not overwhelm the reader and to make every one of her words count (Pavao). Although her style pulls in readers, the topics she covers are the most crucial aspects of her work and the genuine reason she continues to write today. “The honesty, while an affront to many people, is the core of her seven (soon to be nine) books that deal with teen prostitution, drugs, abuse, homosexuality, religious fundamentalism, suicide, cutting, and many other issues” (Hill). Owing to their taboo nature, high school libraries across the nation have taken Hopkin's novels off of their shelves. However, she still pushes the narrative of youth learning the importance of these issues to prevent them from making the same errors her family and friends have made. Ellen said, "...I feel it's important to shed light on these issues because that's the only way we're going to develop empathy for people who are going through them. We need to make it real and to be brutally honest about it” (Pavao). The schools that have left her books on the shelves noticed that her books hook even the most reluctant readers (Books). “It can't hurt that non-readers can rip through the pages of verse, often taking only a day or two to finish one of the 75,000-word novels” (Books). Ellen Hopkins believes that addiction is a part of all lives and that teenagers need to understand what it can do to tear apart a family, just like how it tore apart her own (Books). Ellen has mentioned how her audience has positively responded to her novels. She has received many letters claiming her books have prevented them from making erroneous decisions that would have led them down a grim path. In an interview with Rebecca Hill, Hopkins said, “ I really, truly think that what I do is to give permission to open up the conversation. I want my readers to feel like they can talk to me.. if I can positively impact thousands of lives, that, to me, is a gift...so I take it very seriously” (Hill). Ellen Hopkins cares for her audience and writes to keep them from making the same mistakes that people around her in her personal life have made. 

Not only does Ellen write about her daughter and her friend's experiences, but she tackles her own. In one of her newer books titled The You I've Never Known, Hopkins wrote about one of her abusive relationships. On Ellen's blog, she states, “...[I]Met my daughter, Kelly’s, father on the rebound...The relationship was physically abusive and lasted far longer than it should have. When I finally found the courage to take a break, he kidnapped Kelly against court orders and hid her for almost three years. Finally, his grandmother helped us get her back” (Hopkins). The pain of abuse and the fear of losing her daughter were main themes explored in The You I’ve Never Known. The novel goes into depth about what the future could have been for Kelly if Ellen did not regain custody. The Crank trilogy also explores the legal adoption process that Ellen and John Hopkins had to fight against to adopt their daughter's children. John and Ellen took guardianship of their daughter's first son, Orion, and adopted him four years later in 1966, whereas the Crank plotline ended in 1995 (Hopkins). Not only did they adopt Cristal's firstborn child, but they also adopted her next two children. The third novel in the Crank trilogy, titled Fallout, is the story of Cristal’s first 3 children in the future. Hopkins wrote Fallout as an act of closure. She wrote it to stress that even after adopting her children, they will still have broken and unhealthy lives without the biological mother and father. She also wrote it to justify the reason for her adopting her own daughter’s children. Cristal has been drug-free for a while now and had two more children after her prison sentence ended (Hopkins). Hopkins is not as close with her daughter as she was before she got addicted to methamphetamine. Many female characters have issues with their mothers until the end of the novel, which reflects Ellen and her daughter's current relationship. Ellen may still feel constant guilt for not noticing her daughter's addiction from the start. Moreover, she also seems to feel guilty for not fully reconnecting with her daughter, thus her stories ending with a happier mother-daughter plotline in hopes she can reconnect with Cristal. Ellen has written specific novels based on life experiences of hers to relieve guilt or to feel less alone in her writing. 

Inspiration comes in many forms, but in Ellen Hopkins' case, it all comes from personal experience or through the experiences of others. Some of her books explore more true and raw personal details of her life, whereas others were just mere ideas she received. She wants her audience to think deeply about big decisions before they make them. Ellen Hopkins is a revolutionary writer that is not afraid to go deep into the mental reality that everyone has to face. Her novels should be a go-to for teenagers struggling with any variation of abuse, mental health, and life in general. Hopkins wants to bring awareness to addiction, psychological issues, and abuse, all things that have personally affected her and her family.