I'm really confused about the tagline for the TFIOS movie. "one sick love story" seems to make a joke of their cancer, and the entire story. is there more of an explanation...?

1. I did not write the tag line. To the many of you who love it, I say, “I did not write the tag line.” To the many of you who don’t, I say, “I did not write the tag line.”

2. These things are not my decision. It’s not my movie, or my poster. I don’t know how to make movies or movie posters. 

3. That said, I like the tag line. I found it dark and angry in the same way that Hazel is (at least at times) dark and angry in her humor. I mostly wanted something that said, “This is hopefully not going to be a gauzy, sentimental love story that romanticizes illness and further spreads the lie that the only reason sick people exist is so that healthy people can learn lessons.” But that’s not a very good tag line. I like the tag line because it says, literally, the sick can also have love stories. Love and joy and romance are not just things reserved for the well.

3a. That said, I might be wrong. I’m wrong all the time. 

4. What matters most to me is that you’re seeing Shailene as Hazel and Ansel as Gus for the first time, and it seems like people are (mostly) pretty happy with what they’re seeing, which is what I was anxious about.

5. Also, a major Hollywood studio released a movie poster in which the female romantic lead has visible evidence of her disability, which is damn near unprecedented, and I’m thrilled they put her face—and her cannula—on the poster.

btw, you can get a copy of the poster by donating $25 to the Project for Awesome. 100% of the proceeds go to the charities chosen by the nerdfighter community during the p4a.

(And if you hate the tag line, I’m sorry! You can put duct tape over it or something?)