Erica B. Marcus is an author of young adult nonfiction based in Portland, Maine. For almost two decades, she has had the privilege of working alongside and learning from young people in various capacities: from a wilderness youth therapy setting in Utah to teaching English at a Washington, DC, charter school to offering mindfulness in various schools in Maine. As a recovering perfectionist with a fierce inner critic, she has slowly developed her understanding of awareness and compassion practices through yoga and meditation traditions, including Kripalu yoga, Anusara yoga, Insight Meditation, mindfulness-based stress reduction, and other lineages. She is a certified Mindful Schools instructor, Kripalu yoga teacher, and WholeSchool Mindfulness director for an area middle school.