Taylor Jenkins Reid’s daughter Lilah, 9, is too young to read her books, so her mom tells her kid-friendly versions as bedtime stories instead. And when they’re at the dinner table with Jenkins Reid’s screenwriter husband, Alex, the trio talk over plot points and tricky characters. “I don’t know that I would have the career I have if Alex wasn’t also a writer,” Jenkins Reid says. “I bounce all of my ideas off him. Everyone in my family really understands how to tell a story.” Although precocious Lilah once told her she wasn’t “the best writer in the world” (Mom agrees, by the way), Jenkins Reid’s fans may beg to differ.
The author has written nine books, including Daisy Jones & the Six, now a hit TV show; Carrie Soto Is Back, which Serena Williams is executive-producing as a TV series; and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, which is in production as a movie. Seeing actors like Riley Keough in Daisy Jones bring her work to life is “beyond my wildest dreams,” says Jenkins Reid, who met her husband while working as a casting assistant. “Riley is so perfectly cast as Daisy,” Jenkins Reid reflects. “Riley understands Daisy and it sets a really high bar [to get] Evelyn Hugo exactly right.” And she says she “checked out of my body” when she found out Williams wanted to work on Carrie Soto. “She’s maybe one of the only people I’ve ever been truly starstruck to meet,” Jenkins Reid adds.
She’s also creating a jukebox musical with the Chicks (formerly the Dixie Chicks) and enjoying the collaboration that comes with stage and screen adaptations—although novels remain her first priority. “Writing a book is a really solitary creative endeavor,” she explains. “To get to share that with—what a privilege.”