ATBSWP, Chapter 3, Collatz Sequence. Why does the while loop run when condition is already met?

Question

if the user inputs the number 1, then the while loop shouldn't run since 1 = 1, correct?

def collatz(number):

    if number % 2 == 0:
        print(number // 2)
        return number // 2

    elif number % 2 == 1:
        result = 3 * number + 1
        print(result)
        return result

try:
    n = input('Give me a number: ') #user inputs number, saved to n
    while n != 1: #function repeats while number is not equal to 1
        n = collatz(int(n)) #this is what actually calls the function
except ValueError:
    print('Please use whole numbers only.')

Answer 1

Initially, the type of n is considered as str so "1" != 1 hence the condition is satisfied. Look at this example https://code.hackerearth.com/0acb47j