To say that Jenny Han is busy would be an understatement. Her bestselling books, like the To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before and The Summer I Turned Pretty trilogies have been published in more than 30 languages. She created the megasmash The Summer I Turned Pretty on Prime Video, which, according to Variety, reached 70 million viewers in its third and final season last year. She served as an executive producer on the Netflix film series To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before. She also created and executive-produced XO, Kitty, a spinoff about the youngest sister from To All the Boys (Netflix dropped the third season last month). She’s accomplished a lot since her first book, Shug, came out back in 2006. It’s safe to say that Han has created her own media empire, and now she’s turning her attention to a new medium.

In the graphic novel version of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (Simon & Schuster, May 5), adapted by Barbara Perez Marquez and illustrated by Akimaro and Li Lu, protagonist Lara Jean Covey panics when the secret love letters she wrote to her many crushes actually get sent out, sparking chaos and a very cute fake-dating plot. Fans of the series now get to see the beloved characters in an entirely new way, and our reviewer calls the book “a heartwarming, swoonworthy adaptation that’s certain to delight new and returning fans alike.”

Translating her familiar characters into a new medium was an exciting challenge. “It involved a lot of figuring out what the characters looked like and how to translate who they were on the page into a visual medium,” Han, 45, tells Kirkus on a recent video call. “It’s different than film because with illustration the sky’s the limit, in terms of imagination. I wanted to make sure that the characters still felt like themselves, that their essence was there.”

By this point, Han is a master of telling her stories in different media. She sees each iteration as an opportunity to expand the story and bring it to life in a new way—whether in a television show, a film, or a graphic novel. “It’s still the same story, but I think about what makes each medium unique and why do people enjoy these different media? I want everyone to feel served.”

It’s the collaborative nature of her film and TV work that, she feels, pushes her to explore new pathways. “Writing a novel is a very solitary pursuit,” she says, “but TV and film are collaborative by nature. You have a lot of people helping you tell the story, and everyone’s bringing their own expertise to it, which can open you up to new ideas.”

Han’s writing ambitions began in her childhood when, as a fan of The Baby-Sitters Club and Judy Blume, she filled notebooks with stories about her friends. However, she didn’t realize at the time that writing could be a viable career or part of her future. “It was like how people take chorus or art at school, and they enjoy it, but most people aren’t thinking they’re going to be a singer or a painter. I didn’t want to be a writer because I didn’t realize that was a profession I could pick. It wasn’t until I was in college and took a creative writing class that I thought, I really want to try this,” Han says.

She wrote her first book when she was only 21, which she says is part of why she was drawn to writing about teenagers—she wasn’t far from the teen years herself. Han is known for exploring adolescent feelings with tenderness, authenticity, and angst. But as her characters age into young adults, and as she explores the lives of her older characters, she says there’s “no difference” between how she approaches writing adult and teenage characters—“everybody should be respected as individual beings with their own hopes and dreams.”

Han’s deep understanding of dramatic stakes often leads her to use a classic trope: the love triangle. In The Summer I Turned Pretty, Belly faces the impossible decision of choosing between two brothers, each of whom she loves in a different way and both of whom are an integral part of her history. And viewers of the show were invested in Belly’s choice, proudly declaring their alliances to Team Conrad or Team Jeremiah.

When asked what draws her to love triangles, Han cites the high stakes. “There’s something deliciously terrible about wanting two things but not being able to have them both,” she says. “No matter what, someone is going to be heartbroken at the end. There’s great drama in that, and I think the biggest challenge with a love triangle is that both sides have to feel viable. I like the ones where you’re torn, where you’re vacillating between the choices, just like the character is. You want the stakes to feel important enough to invest in.”

As for her next move, Han surprised and thrilled fans after the conclusion of The Summer I Turned Pretty’s third season by announcing a movie finale. Most excitingly, Han herself will be directing the film. But she’s staying mum when asked for details about what readers can expect. “I like people to be surprised,” she says. “Nowadays it’s very hard to surprise audiences because people see everything online before it comes out on screen, and audiences get fatigued because they’ve already seen images or videos and they think they know what the story is about. So I like to keep it under my hat for as long as I can, because as an audience member myself, I want to be surprised. I don’t want to know how it’s going to end. I like the full experience of sitting in the audience together and having that delicious tension of, Oh my gosh, how’s it all going to come together?”

The next year of her life is dedicated to directing the TSITP film, but there are plenty of other things she’d like to try. The main obstacle, though, is finding the time in her packed schedule. “I have a lot of original ideas I’d love to try, and the biggest challenge is figuring out which medium is best for each idea, whether it should be a movie or a TV show or a book, and deciding what feels the most exciting for me.” She notes that with all her TV and film work she hasn’t published a novel since Always and Forever, Lara Jean in 2017, but she’d love to get back into putting out novels—she’s even been working on an adult book for several years.

One thing’s for certain, though: Han has no plans to stop writing. “Honestly,” she says, “I really like telling stories—it’s just fun for me. So even if I wasn’t doing movies or TV, I would find another way to tell stories. I’ve already done so many of the things I was hoping to do that now it’s just really about the enjoyment of getting to tell these stories.” Her legions of fans will be happy to follow wherever her career takes her.

Kerry Winfrey is the author of Waiting for Tom Hanks and other titles.