Johanna spent her childhood tucked in the crook of a tree with Ramona Quimby, Laura Ingalls, and a blank notebook of her own. She spent her angsty teen years shut in her bedroom scrawling poems and filling journals, trying to make sense of this world and where she belonged in it.
Since then, everything and nothing has changed, as Johanna, now a mom of three, still comes to the page to synthesize the big, hard, and wonderful in life. But now she knows this is exactly where she belongs – writing books that create tangible shared moments of connection in a world that can often feel too big, too detached, and too overwhelming. She writes with the hope of inspiring creativity and wonder so that readers (young and old) realize their own resiliency.
Johanna holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from Texas Christian University and a Master of Public Health from the University of Texas Health Science Center in Austin. With a deep-seated passion for children, especially those in vulnerable positions, Johanna serves on the board of Friends of the Children Austin, whose mission is to break the cycle of generational poverty for youth within her community. She is also a neurodivergent writer who desires to stand as an inspiration and encouragement to others.
Johanna spent 2023 in a one-on-one writing mentorship program with author Bethany Hegedus through The Writing Barn. In 2022 she won an Honorable Mention in the 2022 PBParty and was selected as a Mentee for the Rutgers University Council on Children's Literature One-On-One Plus Conference. In 2021, she was an award finalist for Austin SCBWI’s Cynthia Leitch Smith Writing Mentor Award.
Johanna is a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, 12x12, The Writing Barn’s Verge program and Courage to Create Community.
Johanna is represented by agent Taylor Martindale Kean of Full Circle Literary.
In her free time, she shares her writing journey and the books that inspire her on Instagram @JohannaPeytonAuthor.
Johanna Peyton, writer, mother & child advocate
