Early Life and Education
Born in Richland Center, Wisconsin, Barry moved as a child to Washington. She is one quarter-Filipina, half Irish (each parent is half Irish), and one quarter Norwegian. She attended Kimball Elementary School on Seattle's Beacon Hill and used some of her experiences there as an inspiration for her work. Barry hints that her childhood was very unhappy. Barry′s parents divorced when she was 12, the same year in which Barry changed the spelling of her name from “Linda” to “Lynda”. By age 16, Barry was working nightly as a janitor at a Seattle hospital while still attending high school. Neither of Barry′s parents attended her graduation.
She went to the same high school as artist Charles Burns. At The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington she met fellow cartoonist Matt Groening, who first published "Ernie Pook's Comeek" in the student paper, the Cooper Point Journal, without her knowledge.
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