Hazel Grace is a sixteen year old girl who was diagnosed with a terminal form of thyroid cancer at the age of thirteen who was forced to leave school and the handful of friends that she had. Her lungs are weak and she has to carry a cannula wherever she goes. Throughout the novel, Hazel is challenged by her emotions, social skills and her deteriorating physical condition. At the beginning of the novel Hazel is unwilling to talk to people, doesn’t know how to handle herself in public and keeps most people at a distance ultimately knowing that they would be hurt by her death; she compares herself to a grenade. Upon staying at home for so long, she is socially withdrawn from other people because of her disconnection from the public school system