About Karyn
Karyn Bosnak is the author of the memoir Save Karyn: One Shopaholic’s Journey to Debt and Back and the novel 20 Times a Lady, which became the 2011 feature film "What's Your Number?" starring Anna Faris and Chris Evans.
Born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago, Karyn moved to New York in 2000 to pursue a career as a television producer. After quickly accumulating $20,000 in credit card debt—all from shopping—she lost her job and found herself unable to pay it back. No longer able to afford the finer things in life but unwilling to move back home, Karyn relocated from Manhattan to Brooklyn and began to change the way she lived. She also had a stroke of genius: If 20,000 people gave her just one dollar each, all of her debt would be gone.
In June 2002 Karyn started the humorous website "SaveKaryn.com" where she not only chronicled her struggles with debt but also brazenly asked strangers to help pay it off. News of the website quickly spread around the world, and after twenty short weeks, two million visitors, and over $13,000 in cash from kind-hearted strangers, all of Karyn’s debt was gone.
In 2003 Karyn wrote about her experience with debt in the book Save Karyn: One Shopaholic’s Journey to Debt and Back. It was published by HarperCollins in the United States and is now available in over ten languages around the world. Escape Artists Entertainment optioned the rights for a feature film and hired Karyn to write the screenplay, but the project got stuck in
development and the film wasn't made.
With the success of her first book, Karyn began writing full-time. Her first novel, 20 Times a Lady, was published in 2006 to great reviews. In 2011 it was made into the feature film "What's Your Number?" by New Regency and 20th Century Fox. The movie opened in over 3,000 theaters nationwide.
Stories about Karyn have appeared in publications around the world including The New York Times, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, People, Time, Us Weekly, and Cosmopolitan. She's been a guest on hundreds of radio and television shows including The Today Show, The CBS Evening News, and 20/20. In 2007, VH1 ranked her #31 on their list of "The Greatest Internet Superstars of All-Time."
Today Karyn lives, writes, and daydreams in Los Angeles, California. She’s currently at work on a third book.
“If ever there was a musical waiting to be written, it’s Karyn Bosnak’s tale...”
“That endearing Holly Golightly of the digital age...”
“An annoying twenty-something who needs to be sent to her room. Without supper. And pronto.”
“Sweet and sincere...”
“Almost pathological...”
“Witty and amusing...”
“Utterly shameless...”
“Sad but true...”
“Admits to owning such luxurious but questionable items as the ‘Darrin’s Dance Grooves’ video.”
“A smashing success…”
“An undeniable success…”
“Entrepreneurial...”
“Jobless, broke and stuck with a queasy cat.”
“Smartly coiffed...”
“Intriguing, in a scratch-your-head kind of way...”
“The everywoman... who you would want to hang out with, who you would want to be your friend.”
“The best reason yet to euthanize the Internet...”
“Chatty and chirpy… with an apartment on East 57th, a cat with a sensitive stomach, and a guilty little secret...”