Brashares, Ann (1967-…), is an American author of books for young adults. Brashares gained fame with her “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” series of novels. The series explores the adventures of four teenage girls who share a pair of magical second-hand blue jeans. The pants become a bond among the four.
Brashares began her series with The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2001). The leading characters are four 15-year-old girls—Bridget, Carmen, Lena, and Tibby. The girls decide to share a pair of jeans as a way of keeping up their friendship during their first summer apart from one another. Each of them will wear the jeans for a week and then send them to the next friend. The jeans have the magical quality of perfectly fitting each wearer, even though the girls are different sizes.
In The Second Summer of the Sisterhood (2003), the girls are now 16 years old. In Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood (2005), the girls have graduated from high school and are getting ready for college. Forever in Blue: The Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood (2007) reunites the girls after their first year in college. Brashares introduced three new girlfriends in 3 Willows: The Sisterhood Grows (2009). Brashares takes her characters into adulthood in Sisterhood Everlasting (2011).
Brashare’s other novels for young adult readers include the science-fiction romance The Here and Now (2014) and The Whole Thing Together (2017), about blended families.
Brashares wrote two biographies about computer pioneers, Linus Torvalds: Software Rebel and Steve Jobs: Thinks Different (both 2001). She also wrote two adult novels, The Last Summer (of You and Me), published in 2007, and My Name Is Memory, published in 2010.
Brashares was born on July 30, 1967, in Alexandria, Virginia. She graduated from Barnard College in New York City in 1989.
