After Conquering the Young Adult Market With the 'Culpables' Series, Mercedes Ron Sets Her Sights on Hollywood and Jacob Elordi - EXCLUSIVE

After conquering the young adult market in books and streaming, Mercedes Ron has set her sights on Hollywood and Jacob Elordi. She doesn't say this as a provocation or a passing fancy, but as a natural part of a career that has been growing steadily and strategically for years.

The Argentine author, born in Buenos Aires and raised in Spain and various English-speaking countries, has become one of the most influential voices in Spanish-language young adult literature, with millions of readers and a growing list of audiovisual adaptations. The next premiere is this December 11 on Prime Video: Dímelo Bajito (Tell Me Softly).

Ron achieved success without shortcuts. He began writing as a teenager on wattpad, when publishing stories was more an act of resistance than an industry promise. "It wasn't an overnight success," he recalls in an interview with ENSTARZ and The Latin Times. "I've had to earn it little by little since I was 19, when I finished my first book."

That journey, far from wearing her down, strengthened something crucial: confidence. Today, she acknowledges that the biggest change success brought her wasn't material but emotional: believing in herself and not being afraid to dream big.

That dream now has clear coordinates: Hollywood.

The writer has already had her first experience with an English adaptation and confesses that observing how things are done on the other side of the Atlantic has been profoundly enlightening. She approaches it not only from the perspective of authorship but also from a growing interest in the production process. She is drawn to the role of the executive producer, creative control, and building the project from the ground up. This is no coincidence. Ron studied Audiovisual Communication and has never hidden her fascination with the language of film.

The relationship with Prime Video, the platform that has brought several of her stories to the screen, beginning with the Culpables trilogy and the films Culpa Tuya, Culpa Mía, and Culpa Nuestra , has been key to this transition. "I don't have the final say, but I give my opinion, especially on the script and casting," she explains. It's a collaborative effort that has led her to understand audiovisual media not as a threat to literature, but as a natural extension of her narrative universe.

That universe is marked by intense relationships, emotional conflicts, and characters that force the reader to take sides. In *Tell Me Softly*, one of his most talked-about titles, Ron explores the love triangle from a more unsettling angle. Two brothers are emotionally at odds over the same woman. This dynamic, he admits, was inspired by *The Vampire Diaries*, with its classic tension between the light and dark brother. "I wanted to explore that dynamic," he says.

The result is a more dramatic story, with psychological layers that grow denser as the plot unfolds. And, of course, with factions. "Having teams is always fun," she admits with a laugh, though she acknowledges that the protagonist suffers the most.

Although millions of readers feel they know the author through her books, Ron insists she doesn't write to portray herself. "There's a little bit of me in all the characters because they come from me, but I don't do it on purpose," she clarifies. She prefers to distance herself from her reality and let her imagination take over, though she admits that those who know her detect gestures, phrases, or attitudes that betray her hand. The character of Ivory, in the Confronted saga, is perhaps the most conscious exception.

A nomadic life has also shaped her work. She lived in New York, where she wrote *Enfrentados*, and in Bali, an experience that gave rise to *30 Sunsets*. "Traveling opens your mind," she says. "As a writer, you have to expose yourself to different things." This cultural mix is even evident in her way of speaking, where accents and registers coexist, a hybrid identity that also fuels the complexity of her stories.

Despite his success, the nerves don't disappear. Publishing a book, facing a premiere, or giving an interview still triggers the same anxiety. For Ron, far from being a negative symptom, it's a healthy warning sign. What he does matters. It still matters to him.

It was that feeling, mixed with euphoria and gratitude, that propelled her during her presentation at the Miami Book Festival, where she appeared with the cast of Dímelo Bajito, Alícia Falcó, Fernando Lindez and Diego Vidales.

While finishing a new book that she will deliver in the coming weeks, the author allows her imagination to soar a little higher.

Dakota Johnson, Jennifer Lawrence, and Jacob Elordi appear in her creative imagination as potential faces for future English-language adaptations. Not as a confirmed cast, but as a suggestion. Because if Mercedes Ron has learned anything on this journey, it's that dreams, when pursued with discipline, often find a way to cross borders. Hollywood is no longer an exaggeration. It's the next possible chapter.