Jennifer Lynn Barnes, often known as Jen, was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She has engaged in diverse activities over the years, including being a competitive cheerleader, a volleyball player, a dancer, a debutante, a primate cognition researcher, a teen model, a comic book enthusiast, and a lemur aficionado.

Jen has been passionate about writing since her early years and completed her first full book during high school, which she now considers a "practice book." She wrote her novel Golden the summer after her freshman year in college at the age of nineteen. Jen graduated from high school in 2002 and later earned a degree in cognitive science from Yale University in May 2006.