Yana grew up as an only child in the house that her parents built on the edge of Angeles National Forest in La Canada, California. At 13 she moved down the street to her grandparent's house with her mother as her parents went bankrupt and her father went to work driving a bread truck. Although she had many relatives living on the street that her grandfather had divided into lots for his children, her best friends were animals and plants. Her godmother, Lily encouraged her to draw and paint and take art lessons. Her mother read to her and helped her write her little books. And her father took her to gardens and museums and streams, where she could be with wild and domestic animals, and art of all kinds. She hated school, but loved books.