Tamara Girardi grew up playing sports with the neighborhood kids. Often the only girl, she loved nothing more than smashing a home run at the opportune moment or stealing the basketball from one of the guys and scoring two on a breakaway. In high school, she fell in love with the quarterback and played football in the back yard with him and his two quarterback brothers. Watching them play, she wondered, “What would it be like if they’d had a baby sister? Would she play quarterback, too?” And just like that, the idea for Gridiron Girl was born.

Also an academic, Tamara is an Associate Professor of English at HACC, Central Pennsylvania’s Community College where she teaches creative writing, technical writing, composition, and literature online. She has a PhD in English from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and studied fiction at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Tamara also writes picture books.

She lives in a suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with her husband and four adorably rambunctious children.