Strayed (b. 1968) is an American author and podcast host whose book Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail became an international bestseller and was adapted into an award-winning film. She grew up in Pennsylvania with a loving mother, a father who was abusive, and two siblings—an older sister named Karen and a younger brother named Leif. Her mother left her husband shortly after moving to Minnesota when Strayed was six years old. Aside from the occasional abusive letter, Strayed did not have contact with her father after the divorce. Although her mother was poor, she had a happy childhood in Minnesota.

Strayed was 12 years old when her mother met the man who would be her second husband, Eddie. At the age of 19, Strayed married Paul, who she describes as “a good man” (18). She was 22 and a senior at the University of Minnesota when her mother was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. Alongside Eddie, she became her mother’s primary caretaker: cooking, cleaning, and tending to all her needs. She was home with Leif when their mother died at the hospital. In the four years that followed, Strayed grew distant from her family, had a string of extramarital affairs, was divorced, became addicted to heroin, and terminated an unwanted pregnancy.