Barnes was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma.[1]
She graduated from high school in 2002, then attended Yale University, where she studied cognitive science.[1] She graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the university in 2006 and a Ph. D. in 2012.[1][2]
She is married and has three sons.[3]
Career
Barnes wrote her first novel at age nineteen[4] and sold five books while completing university.[2]
After receiving her Ph. D. from Yale University, she conducted autism research at the University of Cambridge.[1][2] She now serves as an Associate Professor of both Psychology and Professional Writing at the University of Oklahoma.[2][5] In 2019, she received the university’s Robert Glenn Rapp Foundation Presidential Professorship.[6][4]
