Hank Green, longtime novelist and quirky YouTube educational video host, announced Friday that he had recently been diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a form of cancer.
“Good news and bad news. One, it’s cancer,” he said. video On his YouTube channel, Vlogbrothers. “Good news. It’s called Hodgkin’s lymphoma,” he added. “This is one of the most treatable cancers. The response to treatment is very good.”
Green first founded Vlogbrothers in 2007 with his brother John Green, bestselling author of young adult novels such as The Fault in Our Stars and Paper Towns.
Hank Green’s debut novel, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, became a bestseller inspired by his experience of Internet fame and the anxiety and embarrassment it can bring.
“In many ways it comes from my personal experience with the feeling of success,” he said in a 2018 interview. “It’s a very strange feeling that it’s bigger than you think it is in other people’s heads.”
Over the past decade, the Green brothers have built an online video empire with over ten YouTube channels.science show” and “short-term intensive course” has over 20 million combined subscribers and millions more views.
Hank Greene, who is used to explaining scientific things to his followers, said he initially suspected something was wrong when his underarms became unusually swollen. Then I noticed that my lymph nodes were swollen.
He went to the doctor for a scan, an ultrasound, and then a biopsy. He recognized that he had risk factors for lymphoma, including an autoimmune disease and having had infectious mononucleosis as a child.
He said he doesn’t know how his treatment will affect his video production, but he’s confident the online community will understand.
on TikTokGreen has 7.5 million followers, but he speculated that he might spend more time writing his newsletter Nerdfighteria, depending on how he feels in the process.
“I know I feel like garbage,” he said. “It’s going to be really unpleasant.”
Green said he started his first round of chemotherapy on Friday, which will last at least four months.
In the video, he recalls a conversation he had with his brother John, saying he thought “this is the best time in human history to have lymphoma.”
“And you gave me a very John Green thought: ‘Well, it would have been better a year from now,'” he recalls with a laugh.
The brothers also co-founded VidCon, an annual internet cultural convention in Anaheim, California.
VidCon said on Instagram Hank Green will not be attending the tournament scheduled for next month.
“To our co-founder, go-to scientist, and the only person on the internet who seems to understand where the wax in a candle goes. Sending all my love,” he said in a statement. .
Green’s fans also shared messages of support Friday in the comments section of Green’s video and on social media, including sending photos of the pelicans. very specific request.
For now, Green said the main symptom is stress, as a cancer diagnosis threatens to hijack his identity.
“I want to be a fun scientist, I want to be a silly scientist. I don’t want to fight anxiety, I want to be a cancer patient,” he said.
