John Green was born August 24, 1977, in Indianapolis, Indiana. He spent the formative years of his youth primarily in the southern United States. While an adolescent, Green attended Indian Springs boarding school outside of Birmingham, Alabama, and then he went on to study at Kenyon College, where he double-majored in English and Religious Studies. Upon graduating from Kenyon College Green initially intended to become Episcopalian Minister. Following that path, he enrolled at the University of Chicago Divinity School. Before starting his Episcopalian studies at the university, Green served as a student chaplain at a local children’s hospital, where he worked with terminally ill youth. This experience proved pivotal in helping him decide to end his pursuit of the ministry and focus his ambitions on becoming a fiction writer instead.