“We think a lot about what it is to be a person in this peculiar era of history. That’s mostly what we talk about on Vlogbrothers, our primary YouTube channel. That means everything from how to interface with growing inequality, how to prioritize mental health in a world that…does not, and how to find meaning and feel valued.”al impact on science education.

In 2007, John emailed Hank a proposal. Instead of being brothers via text message (which was how they were mostly doing it) they would make videos back and forth to each other for a full year.

Now they run an educational media company, Complexly, a 501c3 nonprofit, dedicated to creating trustworthy content that inspires curiosity and lowers barriers to knowledge building. Complexly is home to over a dozen educational YouTube channels – like Crash Course, SciShow, PBS Eons, Healthcare Triage, The Art Assignment and others pictured below. Together, those channels have 18 million subscribers and are viewed over 60 million times per month. Always 100% free, and funded through advertising, grants, and support on Patreon, Complexly’s videos are used by teachers and learners in schools all over the world.

THE FOUNDATION TO DECREASE WORLD SUCK

Hank and John have also been actively working on some charity projects. For the last 10 years, they’ve been running something called the Foundation to Decrease World Suck, which sounds like a joke but has distributed millions of dollars to charities, non-profits, and educational projects.

As part of the Foundation to Decrease World Suck (FTDWS), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, the Project for Awesome (P4A) annual fundraising event raises awareness of charities that are doing good work across the world. Since 2012, the foundation has provided grants to over 100 charities exceeding $17 million. Check out the vast menu of beneficiaries who had a brighter future because of this event:
Project Awesome Grants Granted!

“We aren’t heading toward a perfect world,
we’re heading toward a better one”

Hank Green, P4A 2022

Good Store

John and Hank Green also founded Good Store – an estore offering unique, environmentally friendly, daily-use products, while donating the profits to charities. Visit GOOD STORE and check out the Awesome Undlies Club, Awesome Socks Club , Ecogeek cleaning products. You can Build a Bundle, Subscribe and Save and join the thousands of happy customers already giving back through their online purchases. Check out https://good.store

About HANK
Hank Green is a science communicator, author, entrepreneur, and longtime builder of communities on the internet. As an author, Hank wrote the NY Times bestselling science fiction novels An Absolutely Remarkable Thing and A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor, which explore technology, power, fame, artificial intelligence, and humanity’s complicated relationship with the future. And together with his wife, Katherine, host the podcast, DELETE THIS.

Across his work, Hank has focused on making complex ideas accessible, helping people become more curious about the world, and building institutions that allow creative communities to do ambitious things together. He lives in Montana with his wife and son.

About JOHN
As an author, John is a New York Times bestselling author, with publications including of “Looking for Alaska,” “An Abundance of Katherines,” “Paper Towns,” “The Fault in Our Stars,” “Turtles All the Way Down,” “The Anthropocene Reviewed,” “Everything is Tuberculosis,” and the September 2026 novel, “Hollywood, Ending” and more, some of which were adapted for broadcast and film.

John’s books have won many prizes, including an Audie Award, an Edgar Award, the Michael L. Printz Medal, and a Los Angeles Book Prize. Green’s books have been published in more than 55 languages and over 60 million copies are in print worldwide. John grew up in Orlando, Florida before attending Indian Springs School and then Kenyon College. He currently lives in Indianapolis with his family.