The idea of Alaska's name initially came to John Green as he was watching The Royal Tenenbaums (2001). The Velvet Underground song "Stephanie Says," which plays in The Royal Tenenbaums, contains the lyrics "She's not afraid to die. The people all call her Alaska."
Black Santa statues can be seen in the colonels mums shop which is a nod to radars parents collection in John greens other book "paper towns".
The source novel was based on John Green's experience as a student at the boarding and day school Indian Springs near Birmingham, Alabama. In an August 2010 Vlogbrothers video titled "Looking for Alaska at My High School," Green revisited Indian Springs and said, "my first novel, 'Looking for Alaska,' was about a guy from Florida who's obsessed with the dying words of famous people, and then leaves home to go to a boarding school in Alabama. And I myself was once a a guy from Florida who was obsessed with the dying words of famous people, and then left home to go to a boarding school in Alabama....'Looking for Alaska' really is fictional, but the setting really isn't. The school in the book is called Culver Creek, but it is almost inch for inch the same place that Indian Springs School was in 1995."
Kaya Scodelario was a fan favorite for the role of Alaska, most likely due to her role Effy in television series Skins (2007).
Margaret Qualley tested for the role of Alaska Young.