“We broke up because I moved to a different country for you but you couldn't move a meeting to pick me up at the airport.”— Yvonne Prinz, author of The Vinyl Princess

“We broke up because I was not a boy.”—Lisa Brown, author/illustrator of Baby Mix Me a Drink

“I thought dating her was just fine. Pleasant. You know what I mean? When she said she didn’t want to go out with me anymore my friends gathered around me. They shook their heads and frowned. They patted my back. 'To bad,' they said and 'you’ll be okay.' I wasn’t sure how they wanted me to act so I tried stomping around and punching walls. I tried to feel bad. I really did. But it didn’t really make any sense to keep up the act. Then I found the meaning of relationships when you’re a teen. It’s a wonderful country music tune called: I Don’t Know Whether To Kill Myself Or Go Bowling.”—Kevin O’Malley, author of Once upon a Cool Motorcycle Dude

“I left my ass in Toronto (after college you moved 2,084.58 miles away and told me to get my ass to Vancouver).”—Frank Viva, author/illustrator of Along a Long Road

“We broke up because he accidentally gave one million hickeys to my friend, and somehow didn't think it was a problem. The only silver lining was that the friend had recently attempted to cut off her bangs, giving herself a tiny horn, which she very much deserved.”—Emma Straub, author of Other People We Married

“Charlie Brown was my first love. But he only had eyes for that Little Red-Haired Girl.”—Jennifer Holm, co-creator of Babymouse & Squish

“You know that old expression, 'Men Are From Mars, Women Are People Who Hate Me, Belittle Me, Take Pleasure In Pointing Out My Faults, And Think I’m Ugly'? It was like that, which was too bad. I mean, hey, I’M FROM MARS. That ought to count for SOMETHING, right?”—Mo Willems, author of Knuffle Bunny

“After my first lesbian break up, my ex left a series of 'I hate you' parting gifts on my porch. Including a cassette tape of the Radiohead song 'Creep.' Looped. Back to back. Side A and B. Best. Mix tape. Ever.”—Mariko Tamaki, author of Skim

“We broke up because I kept forgetting that I had a fake British accent.”—Adele Griffin, author of All You Never Wanted

“Someone made up a lie about how I only dated you out of pity because you were fat. I really, really liked you, but then you believed the lie and broke up with me. So maybe you didn't like me as much as I thought you did.”—A.S. King, author of Everybody Sees the Ants

“I got dumped on my nineteenth birthday. The next day a car hit me. The impact threw me ten feet. My jeans were shredded so badly that my college roommate hung them on our dorm room wall as a conversation piece. I spent the next week recovering in bed, listening to The Smiths and feeling sorry for myself. It took about a decade, but eventually I understood that young love is always a comedy.”—Matthew Quick, author of Sorta Like a Rock Star and The Silver Linings Playbook

"When my heart was broken and I was fifteen, I listened to Lou Reed's Berlin over and over and walked around a lot in the rain while my friends followed me looking worried and imploring me not to do anything stupid. Well, stupider than walking around in the rain, anyway."—Neil Gaiman, author of The Graveyard Book

"He broke my heart. Then I broke his. I laughed at his pain." —Judy Blundell, author of What I Saw and How I Lied

"When Patti Fox broke up with me, I typed her name over a thousand times on my manual Olivetti until the entire page was beaten into a stiff sheet of black ink." —Jack Gantos, author of Hole in my Life

"The boy I loved didn’t know I existed. Then again, he was obsessed with Camus, so he didn’t know if any of us existed." —David Levithan, coauthor of Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist and Will Grayson, Will Grayson

"My heart was broken the spring of my senior year in high school. We broke up in a park outside of town, and as I drove him home, he read me what he’d written in my yearbook. The line that really made me sob? ‘You will always be my Princess Bride.’ Sniff." —Carolyn Mackler, author of Tangled and The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things

"I was heartbroken when my boyfriend announced he was moving to Chicago without me. But, oh yeah, I could keep his guitar amp. Thanks." —Sara Shepard, author of the Pretty Little Liars series

"The first boy I fell in love with didn’t know I loved him, but he managed to break my heart anyway." —Holly Black, author of White Cat

"My heart was sort of broken when my freshman-year boyfriend ended it on Valentine’s Day. But mostly it was broken because I had to return his records." —Sara Zarr, author of Sweethearts

"I knew I had to break up with Ann Rosenberg after she chose a teal dress for the prom. I had never heard of teal. Also, I was gay." —Brian Selznick, author and illustrator of The Invention of Hugo Cabret

"Of course I had my heart broken as a teen. I was desperately in love with myself. Then I found out that I was completely shallow. I haven’t spoken to myself since." —M.T. Anderson, author of The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing