Kersten Campbell has always loved books and chocolate doughnuts. When she was a young girl her parents had her hearing tested because she would be so involved in reading a book that she couldn't hear what was going on in the outside world. There was nothing they could do about the chocolate doughnuts.

She grew up in Wisconsin until she turned sixteen, when her family moved to Boise, Idaho. When she protested the move, her father said, "Don't worry, you'll probably find some nice Mormon boy to marry."