Pulling A Hank Green And Doing It All
A few weeks ago, I shared the story of how John Green’s writing process broke my brain,
(Truly, I still cannot get over the fact that he didn’t know he was writing a love story when he started The Fault In Our Stars. That is absolutely bonkers to me!)
But, if you are an OG VlogBrothers fan like me,
Then you know that John has a very successful (and equally impressive) younger brother named Hank, who also has an important message to teach us.
So, to balance out the Green brother content,
This newsletter will be talking about Hank — particularly, how he is possibly the most impressive and prolific content creator of all time.
(No exaggeration, prepare to be amazed and also to be like HOW??)
Being a creative person often comes with restrictions
Before we jump into the amazing world of Hank Green, I want to set the scene on why I find him so, so impressive:
As a freelance creative, there is an undeniable pressure to “lock in” to a specific niche or skill.
(We are all told that, to be marketable and successful, we need to advertise ourselves as experts in our chosen fields. And, to do that, we need to spend the bulk of our time focusing on that work exclusively).
And while I am in no way knocking having a niche,
(I think being a specialized creative is a very helpful way to stand out and land great clients),
I cannot deny that this approach has also pigeonholed me from thinking I can even try other creative pursuits.
(Those things are not “the thing” that I define myself with, so why should I be wasting my time trying them???)
Enter Hank Green — the literal antithesis of this line of thought.
As a kind of modern-day Renaissance man, there is a very good chance that you have heard of, interacted with, or been influenced by something Hank Green has created.
(And the wild thing is, there are so many different things he does that we probably wouldn’t have that much overlap on exposure).
Hank Green’s impressive creative resume
Here is just a brief overview of his achievements, which include being a famous Youtuber, science communicator, novelist, philanthropist, entrepreneur, musician, and more:
(This list truly goes from wow, that’s so cool, to WHAT, HOW?? so fast)
Hank created VlogBrothers, a YouTube channel with his brother John back in 2007, which now has 3.77M subscribers and is about to hit 1B lifetime views. He makes weekly videos for this channel to this day.
Hank co-created educational companies, including Crash Course and SciShow, both of which create free, high-quality educational content about topics ranging from world history to biology and organic chemistry.
Hank created VidCon, the first-ever in-person conference for video creators.
Hank co-hosts multiple podcasts, including Dear Hank & John, Sci-Show Tangents, & Delete This.
Hank wrote two breathtaking novels, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing and A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor (both of which I loved SO much, they are amazing reads, I highly recommend).
Hank created Subbable, a crowd-funding platform that went on to be acquired by PATREON (OMG??).
Hank won an Emmy (??? WHAT??? HOW??) for his work on the Pride & Prejudice adaptation of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries.
Hank co-created a legitimate charity called The Project For Awesome, which uses an annual 48-hour livestream to raise money for Partners in Health and other charities. As an initiative to “reduce world suck” (this tagline is a copywriter’s dream OMG), the event raised $3.5M in 2024 and has raised over $23M since its creation in 2010.
Hank was diagnosed with cancer this past year (he is in remission now), and while going through chemo, he decided to write and perform a full stand-up comedy set (HOW IS THIS EVEN POSSIBLE) exploring this experience.
Hank co-created Good Store, a monthly subscription for fun products like socks, coffee, and soap that donates 100% of this profits to charity (AHHHHH HOW DOES HE KEEP GETTING COOLER)
(Legitimately, it would be incredibly impressive if Hank had done just one of these things. Looking at this laundry list of accomplishments is actually hard to comprehend).
Not everyone can be Hank — but we also don’t need to limit ourselves, either
I promise the point of this article was not to make you feel bad about your own productivity levels,
(Because, let’s be honest, this is next-level impressive),
But instead, I shared this because what I love about Hank,
(And what I find so empowering and inspiring),
Is that he has never felt the need to limit his options when pursuing creative or business opportunities.
(Instead, he’s like ya, I can be a CEO of multiple companies — but what if I also pop off on TikTok talking about science and also write two beautiful novels and also what if I tried my hand at comedy?? YOLO)
Because Hank isn’t afraid to commit to exploring new creative passions, trying new things, and seeing what works and what doesn’t,
He kinda lives on another planet when it comes to creative energy and productivity.
(And for someone like me, who feels like I need to focus on one thing to be perfect at it, I find the breadth of this work incredibly impressive).
We all can learn from Hank’s approach to creativity
So, besides the key takeaway that it is OK to explore your options and try new things,
Hank’s other clear message is that he never creates anything alone.
Because he always makes it very clear that he would never be able to do even a fraction of the things he does without plenty of help and support,
For someone like me, who is prone to assuming I need to do everything on my own,
His success and candor about the importance of collaboration and support really helps put things in perspective and makes me want to open up more to my peers.
(And isn’t that just the most beautiful of takeaways??)
So, I’d love to hear from you — what passion project have you held off doing because it wasn’t “the thing” you are known for doing?
For me, it’s fiction writing…
(Writing this newsletter has made me want to revisit the few chapters of that medical romance novel I started a few months ago, because yeah, I am a freelance content writer, but who says I can’t ALSO be a fiction writer?? Maybe it’s time to give myself the space to explore another creative outlet again 😈😈😈)
Reply to this article and share your thoughts — I reply to every comment I get!
Until next week,
Claire :)
P.S. When I was doing research for this newsletter, I came across a quote from John that made me smile:
“Actually, that’s true for most of the stuff we’ve made together, like, when I look at my Wikipedia page, I mostly just think, man, look at all these things Hank did while I was writing books.”