Lin Northrup, M.Ed., grew up in Rochester, New York. She didn't plan to be a teacher, but wound up at an inner city school with 36 fourth graders and a rabbit named Midnight who became the superhero in her students' stories. One day she told them the story of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. They rehearsed every afternoon in the original prose. Plays became her staple for teaching reading.

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Her inner rebel was unleashed the day she opened the door of that dusty, dirty classroom with 36 desks lined neatly in straight rows. Her first thought? "It's too square, the desks are too straight and kid's minds aren't straight, square or neat." At that moment, she didn't know that she was already in trouble, that she and the system weren't always going to get along.
 
She moved to Miami and landed in another classroom. After a year, her principal reassigned her to the new district gifted program for 4th-6th grade students and told her, "I'm taking a big chance on you so don't blow it."

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In her forties she became a student of metaphysics, Eastern philosophies and began to practice meditation.
 
Lin conducted after school art and theater programs and created Heartwise Kids, a program that focused on supporting the unique learning styles of today’s children. She believes the young people coming forward have the courage and global consciousness that can change our relationship to each other and the earth. 
 
She was an adjunct professor of English at Naugatuck Valley Community College and in her mid sixties started writing. "I'm a late bloomer," she said, recommending the delightful children's book, Leo The Late Bloomer, to all who 'bloom' later in life.   
 
Her lifelong love of nature, animals and her deep concerns about our environment fueled the writing of Leela and the Forest of Light.