About the Author

ZITFACE is my first book, but I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was ten years-old. I also wanted to be an actress, early on. I grew up in Dallas and Los Angeles, and signed with a talent agency when I was thirteen. I made a commercial, modeled for The Dallas Times Herald and did a screen test for ABC, but nothing came of it. Then I started high school and became obsessed with my social life. That was the end of my short-lived acting career!

In college, I studied magazine journalism at the University of Texas at Austin. After graduation, I high-tailed it to L.A. and landed my first real job: editorial assistant at TV GUIDE. I started out answering phones, but eventually wrote articles. I also freelanced, writing short stories for 'Teen magazine, and my story "Seeing Ellie" was featured in the young adult anthology Not the Only One.

During this time, I periodically suffered from adult acne. I tried multiple antibiotics, including Accutane. Still, the acne resurfaced sometimes. When it did, I felt self-conscious, embarrassed, and annoyed that I let it get me down. 

After TV GUIDE, I held a few non-writing gigs not worth mentioning. Then I joined U.C.L.A.'s Institute for Social Science Research, where I interviewed ‘real people’ for behavioral studies. Motivated to help others, I went to grad school, received a master’s degree in counseling at Loyola Marymount University...and headed back to Big D.

Moving home made sense, economically. I had financial aid loans to repay, and I got a job in Dallas I loved: counselor at a private girls' high school, where I advised students and heard interesting teen issues all day.

I spent my thirties working as a school counselor, and then as a managed health care manager (it paid more). I also buckled down and wrote the first draft of ZITFACE. More importantly, I decided to adopt a child. During the process, I fell in love with my now-husband Trey. Together, we adopted our daughter Olivia from Kazakhstan.

I was so busy being a wife, mom and counselor that I practically forgot about ZITFACE—until my literary agent submitted it to Marshall Cavendish Children’s Books. They acquired my manuscript in March, 2009.