Stephen Chbosky: Hello, my name is Stephen Chbosky. A lot of people over the years have asked me about my last name, and why the crazy spelling, and where did the vowels go? And here is the family story. Many many years ago, my grandfather and grandmother, they had their first child. It was my uncle Tom. And when he was born, my grandmother told my grandfather, Stephen, you have way too many letters in your name. We need to make our name more American.

So, her way of making it more American was I guess robbing it of all of its vowels, and that is why I have this wonderful spelling of my last name, which I have grown to love over the years. And I will say in terms of my full name, Stephen Chbosky, I go by Steve in my life, but I'm named after my grandfather. And when my book was going to be published, I decided that I would always want his name to be on the book.