Rowena Mohr grew up in rural Queensland. While her brothers and sisters were out milking cows and driving tractors, Rowena stayed inside and read, or acted out her own stories in the bush surrounding the house. She successfully avoided becoming a writer for many years, working as an actor on TV shows such as 'Carson's Law' and 'Neighbours'. Eventually she went back to uni and began writing stories for children and young adults inspired by her own remembered experiences of how simultaneously awful and wonderful being a teenager really is. She now works as a theatrical agent, representing 270 performers aged between four and fifty. Rowena lives in Northcote, Melbourne. My Life and Other Catastrophes is her first novel for teenagers.