About
Hi, I’m Gretchen Rubin, a writer with a relentless curiosity for human nature. I believe that when we know ourselves and what works for us, we can change our habits and our lives.
Long Bio
Gretchen Rubin is one of today’s most influential and thought-provoking observers of happiness and human nature. She’s a highly acclaimed writer, known for her ability to distill and convey complex ideas—from science to literature to stories from her own life—with levity and clarity.
She has an affinity for new tools and platforms, and she has cultivated a vast, passionate audience who actively engages with her and her work across many channels. With millions of copies of her New York Times bestselling books sold, more than 220 million downloads of her Happier with Gretchen Rubin podcast, an enthusiastic following on her newsletters and social media, helpful and beautifully designed products, and the award-winning Happier app, she engages her audience wherever they want to be. She is an experienced and sought-after speaker and makes regular appearances across the media landscape.
As the founder of The Happiness Project, Gretchen Rubin has helped create an ecosystem of imaginative products and tools to help people become happier, healthier, more productive, and more creative. “There’s no one-size-fits-all solution,” she explains, “so there’s no ‘right’ way or ‘best’ way. We have to choose the way that work for us.”
She’s been interviewed by Oprah, eaten dinner with Nobel Prize-winner Daniel Kahneman, walked arm-in-arm with the Dalai Lama, had her work reported on in a medical journal, been written up in the New Yorker, and been an answer on Jeopardy!
After starting her career in law, she realized she wanted to be a writer while she was clerking for Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. Raised in Kansas City, she lives in New York City with her family.
Short Bio
Gretchen Rubin is one of today’s most influential and thought-provoking observers of happiness and human nature. She’s known for her ability to convey complex ideas—from science to literature to stories from her own life—with levity and clarity.
She’s the author of many bestselling books, such as The Happiness Project, Better Than Before, and The Four Tendencies, which have sold millions of copies in more than thirty languages. Her most recent book is Life in Five Senses.
She’s also host of the popular podcast, Happier with Gretchen Rubin, and founder of award-winning Happier app, which helps people track their happiness-boosting habits.
Gretchen Rubin has been interviewed by Oprah, eaten dinner with Nobel Prize-winner Daniel Kahneman, walked arm-in-arm with the Dalai Lama, had her work reported on in a medical journal, been written up in the New Yorker, and been an answer on Jeopardy! After starting her career in law, she realized she wanted to be a writer while she was clerking for Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. Raised in Kansas City, she lives in New York City with her family.
Books
Gretchen Rubin is the author of five New York Times bestselling books, including the blockbuster #1 bestseller The Happiness Project, which spent two years on the bestseller list. Her books have sold over 3.5 million copies worldwide, in more than thirty languages.
In her work, she draws on cutting-edge research, ancient philosophy, deep insight into human behavior, and most of all, stories from her own experience, to communicate big ideas. She manages to be both entertaining and serious; soulful and practical; thought-provoking yet propulsively readable; and to write about herself in a way that makes readers want to change their own lives.
While the New York Times called her “the queen of the self-help memoir,” she says, “I would describe myself as self-helpful, not self-help.”
Her books include:
- Outer Order, Inner Calm: Declutter and Organize to Make More Room for Happiness
- The Four Tendencies: The Indispensable Personality Profiles that Reveal How to Make Your Life Better (and Other People’s Lives Better, Too)
- Better Than Before: What I Learned About Making and Breaking Habits—to Sleep More, Quit Sugar, Procrastinate Less, and Generally Build a Happier Life
- Happier at Home: Kiss More, Jump More, Abandon Self-Control, and My Other Experiments in Everyday Life
- The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun
Her earlier books include Forty Ways to Look at Winston Churchill, Forty Ways to Look at JFK, Profane Waste, and Power Money Fame Sex.
See all books.
Download book covers.
Newsletters
Gretchen Rubin’s “Five Things Making Me Happy” newsletter is one of today’s most popular newsletters.
More than one million subscribers get a weekly round-up of what’s making Gretchen happy, as well as practical tips, research, and resources about how we can make our lives happier, healthier, more productive, and more creative.
Four Tendencies Personality Framework
Gretchen Rubin’s “Four Tendencies” framework helps people to make better decisions, meet deadlines, meet promises to themselves, suffer less stress, and connect more deeply. More than three million people have taken the quick Four Tendencies quiz to learn whether they’re Upholders, Questioners, Obligers, or Rebels.
Rubin is the creator and host of the chart-topping, award-winning podcast Happier with Gretchen Rubin, which has had more than 220 million downloads as of 2022. Happier is often described as “Car Talk for happiness.”
Every week on Happier, she discusses happiness and good habits with her sister Elizabeth Craft, a Hollywood show-runner. With segments like “Try This at Home,” “Know Yourself Better,” and “Happiness Hacks,” as well as stories from their own experiences, listener questions, and guest interviews (from Matt Damon to Michelle Zauner to Malcolm Gladwell), they give fresh, practical solutions for creating happier lives.
In her weekly “A Little Happier” episodes, she tells a memorable two-minute story related to happiness or human nature.
Gretchen Rubin is the founder of The Happiness Project—an ecosystem of products and tools to help people become happier, healthier, more productive, and more creative. “There’s no one-size-fits-all solution,” she explained, “so there’s no ‘right’ way or ‘best’ way. We have to choose the way that work for us.”
The Happier App
The award-winning Happier app puts transformation within reach, by taking happiness from the abstract to the concrete. How? Habits. Research shows that around forty percent of behavior is repeated daily, so when we change our habits, we change our lives.
Using Gretchen Rubin’s popular “Four Tendencies” personality framework, the Happier app provides targeted, personalized strategies to help users become happier, healthier, more productive, and more creative.
Products
Gretchen Rubin has created a range of imaginative, customizable products and tools to help people work on their own happiness projects in the way that works for them.
Gretchen Rubin is in high demand as a speaker and has addressed corporate audiences at places such as GE, Google, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Procter & Gamble, university audiences at places such as Yale Law School, Harvard Business School, and Wharton, as well as at numerous conferences. She makes frequent television and radio appearances.
For inquiries, contact Harry Walker Agency.
Gretchen Rubin is a graduate of Yale and Yale Law School and was editor-in-chief of the Yale Law Journal. She was clerking for Justice Sandra Day O’Connor when she realized that she really wanted to be a writer. Raised in Kansas City, she lives in New York City with her husband, two daughters, and dog.
She’s left-handed, red-haired, extremely nearsighted, can’t meditate, spouts aphorisms, sticks to a very low-carb diet, dislikes games, lives around the corner from her in-laws, and visits the Metropolitan Museum every day. She’s a big fan of children’s literature, organ donation, coffee, and high-intensity weight-training. She has no hobbies other than reading, writing, and running experiments on herself. Her sister (lovingly) calls her a “happiness bully.”
Speaking Engagements: Harry Walker Agency
Media Inquiries: email Press@gretchenrubin.com with the subject line “Press Inquiry: (Publication Name)” or “Interview Request: (Publication Name).”
General Representation: Christy Fletcher, United Talent Agency
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