Harry Potter her publishers to adopt a more gender-neutral pen name in order to appeal to the male members of this age group, fearing that they would not be interested in reading a novel they knew to be written by a woman. She elected to use J. K. Rowling (Joanne Kathleen Rowling), using her grandmother's name as her second name because she has no middle name. "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" was published by Bloomsbury, the publisher of all "Harry Potter" books in the United Kingdom, on 26 June 1997. It was released in the United States on 1 September 1998
Politics of J. K. Rowling of her latest Harry Potter novel on paper from Finland because it lacked the ecologically friendly certification she favours. Rowling used her celebrity status on her personal website to advocate her views on skinny, celebrity role models. Rowling said these young women's "only function in the world appears to be supporting the trade in overpriced handbags and rat-sized dogs." Simon Walters, political editor of the "Mail on Sunday", complained that Rowling's attack on weight standards was hypocritical because so many evil characters in her books, such as Dudley and Vernon Dursley, are fat, while Harry Potter himself is so skinny.