Author Jean Meltzer stud­ied dra­mat­ic writ­ing at NYU Tisch, and served as cre­ative direc­tor at Tapes­try Inter­na­tion­al, gar­ner­ing numer­ous awards for her work in tele­vi­sion, includ­ing a day­time Emmy. Like her pro­tag­o­nist, Jean is also a chron­i­cal­ly-ill and dis­abled Jew­ish woman. She is an out­spo­ken advo­cate for ME/CFS (Chron­ic Fatigue Syn­drome), has attend­ed vis­i­bil­i­ty actions in Wash­ing­ton DC, meet­ing with mem­bers of Sen­ate and Con­gress to raise funds for ME/CFS. She inspires 9,000 fol­low­ers on WW Con­nect to live their best life, come out of the chron­ic ill­ness clos­et, and embrace the hash­tag #chron­i­cal­ly­fab­u­lous. Also, while she was raised in what would be con­sid­ered a sec­u­lar home, she grew up kosher and attend­ed Hebrew School. She spent five years in Rab­bini­cal School.