Meet Charlotte Young Adult Author Serena Kaylor – Charlotte Magazine

When she’s not in her surgical scrubs, Serena Kaylor usually sports a flashy outfit and her signature heart-shaped glasses. “I think people are surprised that I have a very science-based job,” she says. “I present very much as someone who likes creative things only.” 

Fortunately, her day job allows plenty of time for her to pursue other interests. Kaylor typically works 24-hour shifts, six days a month, in the Duke Medical In­tensive Care Unit. Last month, Wednesday Books, an imprint of Macmillan Publishers, published her second young-adult novel, The Calculation of You and Me, the story of a math genius with autism who decides to teach herself more about love through romance novels.

Kaylor’s debut novel, Long Story Short, also features a neurodivergent protagonist—something she knows a lot about. “I was diagnosed with ADD at age 5,” she says. “It was the ’80s, so they weren’t diagnosing autism yet. They just said, ‘It’s ADD, here’s some Ritalin.’” Her autism diagnosis came much later, in her early 30s. “When I got that piece of the puzzle, a lot of things started to make sense to me. It was important to understand that label about myself.” 

Kaylor, 39, grew up in Hertford (“a small town with two stop lights”), in the northeastern corner of the state, as a bookish theater kid. She lived for Saturdays, or “Library Day,” when she and her sister could check out a new stack of books. “We were only allowed to get seven, and I’d be finished by Tuesday,” she says, “so I had to wait until the next Saturday to get more.” 

For someone so curious, landing on a single area of study was a challenge. Kaylor attended East Carolina University for one year, then spent a year abroad before graduating from UNCC with a degree in business marketing. But she soon realized business wasn’t for her and switched gears. In 2013, she enrolled in Duke University’s physician assistant program and went on to get her MBA with a concentration in health care management. 

Between textbooks and medical journals, Kaylor always made time to read for fun, too. After the Twilight series peaked, she became hooked on another YA romance set called Anna and the French Kiss. “I loved the voice of the protagonist,” she says. “It was the first time I felt like I could do something like this, like I could be more than just a very enthusiastic reader.”

In 2015, she got to work on her first novel. “I had no idea how to write a book,” she says. “All my training was in business. I wanted to write an awkward, quiet, neurodiverse girl. I thought, What’s the most uncomfortable thing I could do to her? I knew theater camp would get her out of her comfort zone.” 

She finished her first draft in early 2017. “It was the messiest plot you’ve ever seen,” she says. “But I finished it—that was the first step. Then I rewrote it. Twice.” Next, she found a mentor program where she was paired with YA author Sophie Gonzales and revised it again. By January 2020, she had a polished manuscript and began sending it out to agents. Eight months later, Wednesday Books bought it. Long Story Short was released in July 2022. 

Her first book tour included a lineup of speaking engagements and YA book festivals, which could intimidate any introverted writer, let alone a neurodivergent one. “It can be a challenging interaction with so many people on that scale,” she says. “But YA readers are the best, and it didn’t feel like the level of pressure I thought it would be going in.”

Following the June release of The Calculation of You and Me, Kaylor is at it again, with stops across the Southeast. And like her first book, there are pieces of her lived experience throughout the story. “Both have strong, female, neurodiverse protagonists, and there are elements of found family in both. But it’s more about the journey of Beatrice, my protagonist, and finding herself,” she says. “If I knew I was autistic in high school, I might have navigated it better. Beatrice got to have that journey.”