Mónica Mancillas's work includes award-winning title Mariana and Her Familia (Balzer + Bray), The Worry Balloon (Roaring Brook Press), How to Speak in Spanglish (Penguin Workshop), Sing it Like Celia (Penguin Workshop, 2024), and Leyendas/Legends (Chronicle, 2025). Her books center on themes of identity, culture, and mental health, while challenging those outdated tropes that have historically left Latine voices in the margins.

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Born in the small coastal town of Ensenada in Baja California, México, Mónica moved with her parents to the United States when she was two-years-old. As a child, she loved nothing more than to study and explore self-expression through writing and music. After graduating Valedictorian from the San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts, she earned a B.A. in Anthropology from the University of California at Berkeley, after which she moved to Los Angeles where she worked for ten years in the recording industry.

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Today, Mónica runs her own business teaching children how to play the piano. She spends her days writing, reading, and tending to her much-adored daughter, husband, and dog, Annie.