This inspired her to create a children’s book based aviation. The idea for writing children’s books came to life when she visited the Air & Space Smithsonian in 1998, where she saw the museum’s showcase on Women in Aviation. They moved to Tahoe, where Ellen started to do freelance writing for magazines and newspapers. From there, she decided to have a fresh start by selling her business and pursuing her relentless dream of a career in writing. In 1984, Ellen Hopkins finally met John, her current husband until now. Unfortunately, the marriage did not work out. Orion was the inspiration and is actually the basis of the baby character in Crank. By that time, she started a business and already has three kids namely: Jason, Cristal, Kelly and an adopted son named, Orion. As for college, she took up Journalism at UCSB but was not able to finish it because she decided to get married. For her, high school life was mediocre and most of her high school friends are actually also interested in creative pastimes like choir, creative writing, theater and dance-which suited her perfectly fine.Īs for sports, she was not really interested in it and at best she was just mediocre. She has a younger brother named Albert Jr. Then from her adoptive father, Albert, she learned a lot of values especially the value of honesty and a strong work ethic-which pretty much comes out in her writing. Thus, from her adoptive mom she learned to love language. Valeria, read to her children’s stories each night and by the time she was in pre-school, she was already reading chapter books. And she also believes that this talent was nurtured further by her adoptive parents. Of course, as a natural daughter of a writer and a poet, she believes that this talent and gift runs through her too. When asked if her talent for writing was inherent or nurtured, she directly answers that it’s both. It was reported that by the year 2000, Ellen Hopkins finally found her biological mother, Toni Chandler who was also a poet and a writer, just like herself. She conceded that it was definitely a challenge living with older parents along, of course, with lots of wonderful benefits. She is born on Maand her adoptive parents were already old, with her mom 42 years old and her dad at 72 years old. Early LifeĮllen Hopkins is a self-confessed adopted child of Valeria and Albert Wagner. She is a favorite author for both young adult and the teenage readers. She is well known for her books entitled Crank, Burned, Impulse and several others. Ellen Louise Hopkins is a New York Times Bestselling author.

Impulse by ellen hopkins series