Kat, 16, is in high school and is known as an outsider. She works at her mom's midwifery, is an artist, and trains for a women's triathlon. Her classmates call her Yoga Girl because she sometimes does yoga in the hallway. She hangs out with her friend Christy known as Hat Girl because of her insane hat collection. She has a secret crush on a popular guy named Manny Cruz since the seventh grade. Her mother, Abra, called her to assist her with a birth (Kat had always wanted to witness a birth; none of the people who were actually supposed to do it were at hand.) Kat didn't do very well with assisting, so she leaves her job at the midwifery. Shortly after telling her mom she quit, Abra gave her two notebooks. One was her mothers old notebook and one was blank and Kat turned it into a book of facts of her life. These Facts of Life helped her keep her morals and traditional values straight.