Schwartz graduated high school early and started university at Antioch College, though she transferred to California College of Arts and Crafts a year later. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in drawing in 1976. Three years later, she illustrated her first book. The publication inspired her to move to New York City for work, where she eventually settled. Early in her time in New York, she took a course about writing and illustrating children's books from the School for Visual Arts, which led to her first publication in 1982, Bea and Mrs. Jones. Throughout the 1980s, she wrote and illustrated multiple books and was able to do so full-time.
