Danler has stated that although she has much in common with Tess, the novel's protagonist, that Tess "quickly became a character, and is in many ways much better and much worse at life than I was at that age" and is not entirely based on her.
丹勒指出，雖然她與小說的主角Tess有許多共同之處，但是Tess「很快變得有個性，並且在我那個年紀時在許多方面的生活中過得更好，及更糟糕」，並且不完全基於她。