Brizendine has more than 20 years of clinical and research experience as a neuropsychiatrist. She studied at the Berkeley branch of the University of California, Yale, Harvard, and University College in London. In 1994, she founded the Women’s Mood and Hormone Clinic at the University of California, San Francisco. Brizendine has published multiple peer-reviewed articles, and she is the best-selling author of three books—The Female Brain (2006), The Male Brain (2010), and The Upgrade: How the Female Brain Gets Stronger and Better in Midlife and Beyond (2022).

Brizendine’s work has been harshly criticized in the academic community. A review in Nature discusses the numerous errors, lies, and misleading presentations of information within Brizendine’s text (Young, Rebecca M. & Evan Balaban. “Psychoneuroindoctrinology.” Nature, 2006). Psychologist Cordelia Fine was inspired to write Delusions of Gender (2010) after reading The Female Brain. In her work, Fine draws attention to the manipulative and unethical techniques Brizendine uses to sway her audience. Fine also presents updated counterarguments to Brizendine’s bio-essentialist approach.

Leila is the young female child of Charles and Cara, one of Brizendine’s students. Leila has a male cousin, Joseph, who is similar in age.