Met Pixar's founder John Lasseter at a panel where he told her that if she wanted to work at Pixar she needed to attend USC, they recruit from there. That fall she applied to USC and was admitted five months later. She credits the meeting with John as a life changing moment. At the time she was a stay-at-home mom with three young children, hosting a weekly book club, and secretly teaching herself how to write screenplays. After her first year of film school she was one of five students chosen as a finalist for the coveted editing internship at Pixar. She ended up not pursuing that path and instead focused on the writing and directing.
