For Julie Israel's young adult novel Juniper Lemon’s Happiness Index, designer Samira Iravani wanted to communicate the stark contrast between the main character’s humor and the emotional turmoil she suffers from throughout the story. The plot revolves around Juniper "recovering from the unexpected death of her older sister, Camilla," Samira tells Spine. 

Novelist Julie Israel describes her writing process in no uncertain terms. 

“It’s kind of like a bell graph,” she says, “where the thing being measured is chaos.” Similarly chaotic is her unconventional route to debut author stardom. Though she holds the expected B.A in creative writing, Israel prides herself on the more atypical entries in her resume - like her experience teaching English in Japan, which she best summarizes as “HOLY CULTURAL EXPOSURE, BATMAN.”