Gretchen Rubin

Gretchen Rubin is a writer with a relentless curiosity for human nature. She believes that when we know ourselves and what works for us, we can change our habits and our lives. Her work investigates unexpected truths about everyday life and looks for ways to take happiness from the transcendent to the concrete. She is known for conveying complex ideas, from science to literature to stories from her own life, with levity and clarity.

She is the author of five New York Times bestselling books, including The Happiness Project, which spent two years on the bestseller list. Her other books include Better Than Before, The Four Tendencies, Outer Order, Inner Calm, Life in Five Senses and Secrets of Adulthood. Together they have sold over 3.5 million copies worldwide, in more than thirty languages. The Four Tendencies, her personality framework, sorts people into Upholders, Questioners, Obligers and Rebels by how they respond to outer and inner expectations.

Gretchen hosts the podcast Happier with Gretchen Rubin with her younger sister, the Hollywood show-runner Elizabeth Craft. It launched in February 2015 and has had more than 280 million downloads. She also co-hosts the advice podcast Since You Asked with psychotherapist and author Lori Gottlieb. She is the founder of The Happiness Project and of the award-winning Happier app, which helps people track their happiness-boosting habits. Her weekly "Five Things Making Me Happy" newsletter has more than one million subscribers.

"There's no one-size-fits-all solution," she explains, "so there's no 'right' way or 'best' way. We have to choose the way that work for us." She began her career in law and realized she wanted to be a writer while clerking for Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Raised in Kansas City, she lives in New York City with her family.