Author Ellie Terry is diagnosed with Tourette syndrome, and Forget Me Not has been marketed as a semiautobiographical account of Terry’s experience living with Tourette’s and moving between several small towns in the American West as a child. Terry has referenced both her and her daughter’s experiences with Tourette syndrome as inspiration for the novel. In her Author’s Note, Terry explains that she exhibited tics at a young age but was not diagnosed until later in life, and because of this, she spent many years embarrassed of her condition. Her doctor advised her not to tell anyone about her diagnosis because of the likelihood that it would be misunderstood (an event that Terry includes in the novel). Instead, Terry shared her diagnosis with friends and family and wrote Forget Me Not to encourage others to do the same.