Vestly was best known for her series about a grandmother (Mormor) who looked after and shared numerous adventures with a flock of eight children.

[1] Vestly was born Anne Catharina Schulerud in the village of Rena in Åmot municipality in Hedmark, Norway.

She also co-starred with Alf Prøysen in Kanutten og Romeo Klive (1963), a popular children's television show on NRK.

She challenged the traditional gender roles in the "Aurora" series (1966–1972), in which she depicts a family where the mother works as a lawyer, while the father, an ancient history Ph.D. candidate, stays at home with their two children.

She was also the aunt of Ingrid Schulerud, who was married to Norwegian prime minister, later Secretary General of NATO Jens Stoltenberg.

She spent her final years living in a nursing home in Mjøndalen, where she died in 2008 at the age of 88.