Cheryl (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. Cheryl 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. Cheryl’s mother left her husband shortly after moving to Minnesota when Cheryl was six years old. Aside from the occasional abusive letter, Cheryl did not have contact with her father after the divorce. Although her mother was poor, Cheryl had a happy childhood in Minnesota.

Cheryl was 12 years old when her mother met the man who would be her second husband, Eddie. At the age of 19, Cheryl married Paul, who she describes as “a good man” (18). Cheryl 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. Cheryl was home with Leif when their mother died at the hospital. In the four years that followed, Cheryl grew distant from her family, had a string of extramarital affairs, was divorced, became addicted to heroin, and terminated an unwanted pregnancy.