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Susan Eloise Hinton was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1950.  She always enjoyed reading but wasn't satisfied with the literature that was being written for young adults. That dissatisfaction  influenced her to write novels like The Outsiders.

The Outsiders. Published in 1967, when Hinton was seventeen and a student at Tulsa’s Will Rogers High School, the book also set the standard for future young adult novels, by addressing hard issues that teens faced, such as gang violence. The novel was published under her initials, because the publisher feared that their audience, mainly young men, would not accept a female author, especially since most of her narrators are male. Even though Hinton’s gender was eventually revealed, she has used her initials for all of her published books thus far.

Once published, The Outsiders gave her a lot of publicity and fame, and also a lot of pressure. S.E. Hinton was becoming known as "The Voice of the Youth" among other titles. This kind of pressure and publicity resulted in a three year long writer's block.
 

In the early 1980s, four of Hinton's novels were adapted for film. Hinton was involved with the filming of TEX, THE OUTSIDERS, and RUMBLE FISH --- all of which starred young up-and-coming actors, including Matt Dillon, Emilio Estevez, Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe, Ralph Macchio, and Tom Cruise. Hinton even played bit parts in these films as a typing teacher, a nurse, and a prostitute. The last of Hinton's novels to be adapted for film, THAT WAS THEN, THIS IS NOW (in 1985), starred Emilio Estevez, who also wrote the screenplay, and joined the rest of the movie adaptations as being another box office success and film classic. THE OUTSIDERS, directed by Francis Ford Coppola of The Godfather fame, even spurred a 1990 television series whose 90-minute pilot was the highest rated show in Fox's history when it aired.

In 1995, Hinton released two children's books, BIG DAVID, LITTLE DAVID and THE PUPPY SISTER.

S. E. Hinton currently lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma with her family.