"I honestly think sometimes they confuse me with Josie," says Miranda who has played many television and stage parts but none with the same emotional pull as Alibrandi.

"People will often want to talk to me about Tomato Day, and I don't want to break their hearts and say I don't know what that is."

To mark 25 years of the classic Australian coming-of-age novel, the Sydney Writers' Festival has brought together Miranda, Alibrandi author, Melina Marchetta, and writers Yassmin Abdel-Magied, Mark Di Stefano, Gen Fricker, Brodie Lancaster and Rajith Savanadasa to recreate Josie's first meeting with boyfriend Jacob Coote.

Miranda, who was 24 when she played 17-year-old Josie, says it seems pointless, even cruel, to correct those who can't see the actor in the character.

"It's a story about a young girl who doesn't fit in, doesn't fit the mould," Miranda says. "Josie was unique because she ambitious, she wasn't the perfect person, she was flawed and I think it spoke to young women in a huge way."

She, too, has learned to embrace the "Josie" factor: "I decided very early on to make it a positive experience and focus on the work, and not all the other stuff that goes into being an actor."

The personal following of Alibrandi was something Marchetta could also have never predicted.

"I've said this more than once over the years - that when I finished the manuscript I gave it to my family to read," she says. "They loved it but said, 'Only people like us will read it'.

"What I've discovered over the 25 years is that there are many people like us, that what we share isn't just a cultural identity or even a sense of place or age.

"One of the most profound letters I ever received was from an Iranian woman inside Villawood detention centre. She told me that reading the novel gave her a chance to see what Sydney was like beyond the barbed wire.

"I can hardly tell that story. Every time I do, I start crying because I was never a powerful child or teenager, but that sentiment makes me feel powerful."

Marchetta left school when she was 15 and wrote Alibrandi when she was 20. Its publication in October 1992 gave her a confidence to tackle university.

"I remember thinking that if I was smart enough to get a novel published, then I was smart enough to go to university."

That's not to say that the Alibrandi connection hasn't irritated her down the years.

"I knew early on that I had to do something different because if I didn't, I'd get boxed in professionally. I still feel that way at times and that perhaps in the literary world I don't have the standing that other writers do based on their body of work.

"But I'm proud of that work so it doesn't get to me now. Maybe when I was younger it did.

"I do know that there's more to me than that novel and my best writing happened post-Alibrandi. But I don't want to take away from readers how they've felt about it."

Immediately after filming, Miranda, Marchetta, director Kate Woods, and actor Greta Scacchi went on an Italian holiday.

"The rehearsal process was very intense," recalls Miranda. "Because we were fairly young they took us into a lot of acting workshops. We had an eight-to-10 month period between getting the job and starting filming, and so we really bonded."

Miranda went to New York to study acting and decided Hollywood was not for her, returning to take roles in Wentworth and The Secret Life of Us. She is filming Mustangs FC, an ABC teenage drama series.

Marchetta went on to publish Saving Francesca, and has drafted a screenplay to turn the book into a feature film. She successfully turned to crime in Tell the Truth, Shame the Devil.

25 YEARS of LOOKING FOR ALIBRANDI: Sunday, May 28, 11.30am, $20, Pier 2/3, The Loft, Hickson Road, The Rocks, 9250 1988, swf.org.au.

FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS:

ALL DAY YA: Graphic novelist Mariko Tamaki, Instagram poet Rupi Kaur and local heroes Garth Nix, James Bradley and Amie Kaufman headline this day-long program. Recommended age: 12 plus. Saturday, Riverside Theatre, Parramatta, $15 per event, 88393399, riversideparramatta.com.au.

ROBERT DESSAIX: Enough of the kissing, hugging and saying, "I love you", says the essayist. Saturday, 12m, Pier 2/3 Curiosity Stage, Hickson Road, The Rocks, free, no bookings.

PAMELA PAUL: The New York Times Book Review editor and author of My Life with Bob chats to Susan Wyndham about our complex relationships with the books we read. Thursday, 4.30pm, Pier 2/3 The Loft???, $20, 9250 1988, swf.org.au.

JANE HUTCHEON: The ABC television host discusses, China Baby Love her book about an Australian woman who established foster homes for unwanted babies. Tuesday, Hornsby Centre Library, 28-44 George Street, Hornsby, free, 9250 1988, swf.org.au.