Hannah Brown first captured the hearts of viewers on The Bachelor when she competed for Colton Underwood's heart. It was her vibrant personality and unapologetic authenticity that made fans fall in love with her when she returned to the spotlight as The Bachelorette, where her journey to find love became something of a cultural phenomenon. Brown ultimately emerged as a symbol of empowerment for millions of female viewers. "It was actually such a precious moment in my life. It was such a learning experience. The life change that happened in such a short amount of time was drastic. And I feel like I'm still peeling back the layers and kind of resurrecting from that in some way. I'm so grateful for that opportunity."
The Nashville resident has since made the segue from television personality (also competing and winning Dancing With The Stars) to author. She first earned the moniker of author in 2021 with her memoir, God Bless This Mess: Learning to Live and Love Through Life's Best (and Worst) Moments, which became a New York Times bestseller. This time around, she's jumped into the world of fiction with Mistakes We Never Made, released this month.
Brown says, "I have always been an avid reader. I love getting lost in a book, and so to be able to have this opportunity was just a dream come true. I remember being in high school sitting with my mom at the kitchen table, and being like, 'One day I want to write a book.' To be able to see that dream that I had in high school come to fruition is really cool."
Mistakes We Never Made tells the story of Emma and Finn, frenemies who alternate between love and hate for each other.
Brown says, "I wouldn't say the exact experiences are from my life, but the feelings that I've had, and different relationships really inspired the book. Not just romantically, but with friendships. I think that's a big part of the book that makes it unique, is that it's not about just love with another person or the drama within that. But it's also about the love you have for the people in your life and your friendships. So I just drew from different experiences and feelings that I've had in the past, and then made it into a really great rush of adventure between the two characters Emma and Finn."
As any author would attest, writing a book is not an easy process. Brown says, "It's a very long process to write a book. The first part is really just coming up with a creative idea like what you want this to be, but the character development is one of my favorite parts. 'What is it behind the way that this person reacts? What is their background?' I love that part, but it takes a while to come up with these creative concepts that really ground the book. I worked with somebody else, I had a team that helped me with this, and that was probably my favorite part, just being really collaborative, asking ourselves 'What is the main message behind this? What are these characters feeling, but not saying and how do we put that on the paper?' It's a lot of that at the beginning, and then it gets into the writing process that takes a while and there's a lot of editing. I think people don't realize just how much editing that goes into it."
Brown continues, "I just can't say enough about the people who have been a part of really making Mistakes We Never Made the book that it is. I'm so proud, but I could not have done this on my own. Having people who have been in this business for a long time to really guide me and help me make certain decisions, or having those really long conversations about making sure that we get this right. It takes a lot of time and work, but what we've gotten out of it, I am so proud of."
Mistakes We Never Made is book one in a two-book series. Brown says, "I think we're still a ways away, but we're working on it already right now. We're in that process of the character development and editing the few chapters that we've kind of just started. We're still in the beginning stages, but really excited about what's next."
In between writing books, Brown is hosting a weekly lifestyle podcast, Better Tomorrow. She got the idea for the name of her podcast from listening to another podcast. "One of the guests said that he asked himself the question, 'Am I better today than I was yesterday?' And that really stuck with me," Brown says. "I wrote it down on a post-it to ask myself at the end of the day. And when I had that honest conversation with myself, it really didn't allow there to be another 'no' day the next day. What did I do today that didn't help me move forward? Or what did I do to help me move forward and how can I do that a little bit better the next day? So that's where the name came from."
Guests have included her fiancee Adam Woolard, Bachelor alumni Tyler Cameron, Kaitlyn Bristowe and Colton Underwood, Tiffani Thiessen, Tamron Hall and anyone Brown "really wants to talk to. I love talking to people who are totally different than me, but also we have some type of connection, that string that connects us all, and being able to hit on that so that the listener can also relate. That's really important to me. I feel like you can think somebody's so different than you, but the whole goal of connection is to find that thing that we can all resonate with."
Brown reminds us of the power of connection and continues to make a meaningful impact through her words. @hannahbrown
"Life is full of lessons and some of those you either learn something from or it becomes something great, but you have to take the chance, take the risk, and something beautiful can happen."
"I want people to really get lost in the fast pace of the book. It's that fun, spicy, perfect beach read."
