Peggy Kennedy grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and attended Mills College, where she received a Bachelor of Arts in Asian Studies. She sold real estate for eight years before splitting from her husband and moving to San Francisco to start an events company which developed sponsorship for the Bay Bridge 50th Birthday, Bay Bridge Permanent Lighting Campaign, In Concert Against AIDS, and San Francisco's annual Chinese New Year celebration.

Compelled to write her family's unique and moving story, Kennedy began work on her memoir, Approaching Neverland, in 2004. Peggy and her husband have been reunited for 19 years and live in the East Bay with their younger son, chocolate lab, three horses, and their older son's annoying cat. She continues to market the Southwest Airlines Chinese New Year Festival and Parade.