Why did S.E. Hinton use a pen name?

S.E. Hinton was born Susan Eloise Hinton in Tulsa, Oklahoma. When she published her first novel, The Outsiders, in 1967, she used a pen name to deflect attention from her gender, following the suggestion of her editor. Notably, the novel’s plot centers on teenage boys from different social classes who belong to rival gangs, and the book recounts a violent conflict between them. According to Hinton, the book’s subject matter was a departure from other novels marketed to teenagers at the time. In 2014 she told The New Yorker, “There was only a handful…having teenage protagonists: Mary Jane wants to go to the prom with the football hero and ends up with the boy next door and has a good time anyway. That didn’t ring true to my life.”