Ann Brashares was born and raised in the Washington, D.C. area with her three brothers. She attended the Sidwell Friends School and then studied philosophy at Barnard College in New York City. After college she worked in editorial jobs until 2000, when she began her first novel, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, published in 2001.

Ann lives in New York City with her husband, artist Jacob Collins, and her three children, Sam, Nate, and Susannah. They spend summers on Fire Island, New York.