Rachel Renee Russell books in order

Rachel Renée Russell is an American children's author and attorney who created Dork Diaries, an illustrated diary-format series for younger readers that began in 2009.

Russell studied at Northwestern University and then went to law school, and she works as an attorney as well as an author. She lives in northern Virginia. Her daughters work with her on the books: Nikki Russell is the series illustrator alongside her mother, the heroine Nikki Maxwell is named after her, and AALBC credits both daughters, Erin and Nikki, with inspiring the series. Sources disagree on her year of birth.

The first book, Dork Diaries: Tales from a Not-So-Fabulous Life, was published by Aladdin Paperbacks on 2 June 2009, and appeared in the UK simply as Dork Diaries. The main series has reached 16 numbered volumes, with companion activity books and a three-book spin-off, The Misadventures of Max Crumbly. By December 2024 the series had sold more than 55 million copies and been published in 45 languages across 52 countries. It has won two Children's Choice Book of the Year awards, and Russell received the Milner Award for Children's Literature in 2014.

For collectors. The series was published first in the United States by Aladdin, and the UK edition of the opening book used a different title. The 2009 first volume is the natural starting point for anyone assembling first printings of the series.