![The Perks of Being a Wallflower](https://cdn.slatesource.com/3/7/2/3727d8dd-32d8-480d-ac16-23d8d1ea7095.webp)

# The Perks of Being a Wallflower

- [Made in Slatesource](https://slatesource.com/u/steph/the-perks-of-being-a-wallflower)
- By [Steph](https://slatesource.com/u/Steph)
- Arts & Culture
- Created on May 4, 2026

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## The Perks of Being a Wallflower

He writes letters to a stranger. He is so clearly not fine. Chbosky made every lonely teenager feel seen by someone.

## Dear Friend

Stephen Chbosky's 1999 novel is told through letters written by Charlie, a quiet fifteen-year-old starting high school, addressed to an unnamed friend he has never met. Charlie is navigating the death of his best friend, his English teacher Mr. Anderson who gives him books and asks him to participate, and two seniors named Sam and Patrick who take him under their wing. He listens. He observes. He participates. Something about his past is surfacing slowly throughout the year, and the novel's final revelation reframes everything. The novel was adapted into a film written and directed by Chbosky himself in 2012.

journey·6 Letters

# Reading The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Presence

/

Letter

August

Shy

"Charlie enters high school as invisible as he can make himself. He watches everything."

> We accept the love we think we deserve.

Chbosky wrote the novel in one month in 1994 while living in Pittsburgh. He based it partly on his own high school experience and said he wanted to write the book he had needed to read at fifteen.

The novel was banned from numerous school libraries but remained in print and was quietly beloved for over a decade before Chbosky's 2012 film brought it to a much larger audience.

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