Jennifer Mathieu

About Jennifer Mathieu

Jennifer Mathieu grew up on the East Coast of the United States before settling in Texas, where she now lives with her family. She worked as a journalist before turning to teaching and fiction writing, and she currently teaches English while continuing to publish young adult novels. Her books are frequently recognized by the Amelia Bloomer Project and the Junior Library Guild for their attention to feminist themes and contemporary teenage life.

Notable Works

Mathieu's debut novel, The Truth About Alice (2014), tells its story through a chorus of classmates and neighbors speculating about a girl blamed for a boy's death, deliberately withholding Alice's own voice for most of the book so readers experience the same rumor and erasure she does. Her breakout novel Moxie (2017) follows a teenage girl who anonymously distributes a feminist zine to challenge sexism at her high school; it was adapted into a 2021 Netflix film directed by Amy Poehler. Mathieu's other novels, including Devoted (2015), Afterward (2016), and The Liars of Mariposa Island (2019), continue her focus on teenage girls navigating community judgment, family expectation, and self-determination.

Book Challenges

The Truth About Alice has drawn objections for its frank treatment of teenage sexuality, including references to sex, sexting, and the double standards applied to girls versus boys after a sexual encounter, along with underage drinking and language used by its teenage characters. Other challenges reflect discomfort with the novel's unresolved ending, which refuses to deliver a clean verdict on Alice's guilt or innocence—an ambiguity that is central to the book's critique of how rumor hardens into accepted fact. The title has been the subject of 22 district-level challenges across 7 states tracked in this catalog.