CoHo! -Emily Miller

 Have you ever wanted to escape reality and be in a different world, even for just a few moments? Maybe live a life through someone else's story. Or, you may just want to take a break from watching the television, phone, and/or computer and work your mind muscles for a bit? Many young adults recently have been doing just that. Colleen Hoover, an American novelist who has gained much attention from young adults in the past few years, holds six out of ten spots on the New York Times Best-Selling Author list for fiction. Originally, she self-published her first book in 2012 and caught most of her fame in 2016. Many of you may know her by her most popular book, It Ends With Us. That one hits hard on waterworks if you know what I mean. Since that release, she has grown on many social media platforms, in newly published books, and more. They named themselves "Cohorts," and nicknamed Colleen Hoover "CoHo," creating the CoHo fandom.

Colleen gained fans first through books of course. However, her TikTok page has definitely shown up across many young adults "For You" pages. She was buzzing especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, when she sold over 230,000 units of her books. She gained mega amounts of exposure and fame on "BookTok," which is what readers call their videos about books on TikTok. CoHorts shared videos of their opinions, thoughts, and predictions on future books all in 30-second (+) clips on TikTok. There are over 345,000 posts under her hashtag, #ColleenHoover, and this doesn't even include the posts not providing a hashtag in the description to fall under that number. Fans debate in the comments on opinions of books and potential scenarios of what happened with a character in the past to make them act the way they did in the novels. They can stitch or duet posts that were posted by other fans as well, and state their agreeance or They even share upcoming news from CoHo, like her new movie coming out with TikTok's, and possibly most of her fans', favorite published novel, It Ends With Us. The news of the movie and the casting nearly BROKE the internet and fandom base with the excitement that came with the movie announcement and a certain character cast. Ahem, Blake Lively. Well, she is gorgeous and a fan favorite after all, and to be cast as the main character, Lily Bloom? Yeah, BookTok was very popular that day.

It seems her fans utilize more social media platforms as well. Facebook has a CoHorts private group, created 8 years ago, that has over 200 thousand group members! Certain rules come with the responsibility of being accepted into the group. As published in their description, the fandom emphasizes being nice and respectful, which matches CoHo's vibe and personality. Any day of the week, fans apart of this group may post giveaways for CoHo exclusive books. But, they have "Fan Fridays," in which members are allowed to post giveaways in the group for any book. This is a strict rule and if you violate the rule your post will be deleted. Fans post anything related to Colleen Hoover, and this is just one of many groups on Facebook that have a book club group directed on posts solely about CoHo. 

If you are a part of a fandom, you may be familiar with "Wiki." Colleen Hoover's Wiki has many posts circulating as well. Her Wiki is just another platform in which individuals can post thoughts, questions, etc. on anything CoHo. This hasn't gained as much popularity as her Facebook group has, but still provides a community for users without Facebook.

CoHo has over 1.9 million fans following her on Instagram. Each post has thousands of likes and many comments from fans. Fans share new releases of hers on their stories and pages, which CoHo often reposts. You can find fans posting their scenery from wherever they may be in the world, reading their CoHo books. Fans find CoHo's quirkiness in her Instagram captions humorous and add it to their long list of reasons for how they love and connect with her. 

Colleen Hoover fans also show their love in the distances they travel to meet and talk to her. A recent example includes her most recent release, It Starts with Us, which is the sequel to her most popular book. Girls from all over the United States flew to New York to snag a copy of her new book at CoHo's pop-up. One fan even mentioned she woke up at 2:30am that day to make her flight and her appearance possible and had to return back home that day for work the following day. The dedication many fans of her have is amazing and admirable.

Colleen adds youth to her book that, evidently, speaks to the young adults in our world. She has brought a community of readers together and stories to rave and discuss together. Her novels take you on a rollercoaster, and her fans are all on a ride together... on TikTok and Instagram. Yet, still together! Colleen has grown tremendously because of it and fans couldn't be happier to hear the newest announcement of a novel, serious, sequel, and movie! Without fans, there wouldn't be nearly as many incredible publishes from the queen herself, Colleen Hoover.

References

Dockins, J. (2023, March 22). How colleen hoover rose to rule the best-seller list. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/newsgraphics/card-story/colleen-hoover

Miller, L. (2022, August 7). More than half of America’s most popular books are by the same author. Slate Magazine. https://slate.com/culture/2022/08/colleen-hoover-books-it-ends-with-us-verity.html

N020212, KnownAsMxllory, Adriiaanaa, Firefly2006, Tamirobson, Kkrueg20, Librocubicularist111, Txllyrqse, & SuperTalker101. (n.d.). Discuss everything about colleen hoover wiki. Fandom. https://colleen-hoover.fandom.com/f

Tikannen, A. (2024, March 21). Colleen Hoover. Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Colleen-Hoover

TodayShow. (2022, October 19). Colleen Hoover is dominating the bestseller charts. her fans explain why. TODAY.com. https://www.today.com/popculture/books/colleen-hoover-author-popular-why-tiktok-rcna52791