Many things came out of the chance encounter between Sophie Goode and David Lebel in New York City's Washington Square Park: hours of procrastination, two degrees from NYU, countless international flights, one rushed proposal, and a shotgun wedding. More enduring than any of those, however, was Clara, the only child of their ill-fated union. Clara was born and raised in Denver after her parents moved to Sophie's native Colorado following their wedding. But this was not to last. When Clara was a toddler, her parents split up. Deciding to keep her in the States, her mother and father made arrangements to have their daughter split her time between Denver and Toledo, spending the school year in Colorado and the summer in Spain.

Longing for a change and the ability to make her own plans rather than being carted back and forth across the Atlantic, Clara followed in her parents' footsteps and moved across the country, where she attended New York University. There she studied history and art history. After graduating, she moved back home and spent two years serving as a teacher in Denver as part of Teach for America. Impassioned by her time in underprivileged schools, she enrolled at Sturm College of Law at the University of Denver hoping to work in education advocacy. However, she found herself floundering in her first semester, overwhelmed by her workload and the stress of her father's second cancer diagnosis. After she stopped doing her reading and attending lectures, she officially dropped out. She currently works at Anthropologie and part time as a substitute teacher.