Veronica Roth
Age: 25
Occupation: Author
Your teenager who hates to read—well, he’s had his face buried in Roth’s Divergent series for weeks. Now he’s begging to see the Chicago-filmed movie (which stars Shailene Woodley and Kate Winslet, along with the Navy Pier Ferris wheel and other recognizable local spots). What’s even more extraordinary than the power to get nonreaders to read? Each book in this dystopian trilogy nabbed the top spot on the New York Times children’s bestseller list, and the latest, Allegiant, broke first-day sales records for HarperCollins in October, when 455,000 copies were sold in 24 hours. So while Roth, who had already inked a book deal when she graduated from Northwestern in 2010, set her novels in a dark and dreary future, it’s clear that her own prospects are remarkably bright.