[1] As an infant, she was infected with polio and therefore unable to walk until she was six; she continued to wear braces until she was a teenager.
[1][4] After divorcing her first husband, she decided to choose a new surname, and picked Barrett from a New York City phone directory.
[1] She met Bob Vila in the mid 1970s and the two became business partners, consulting on renovating old homes.
[3][5] Barrett is the president and founder of the Fledgling Fund,[2] a philanthropic organization that supports documentary films that have a social impact.
[7] She is also a member of the Peabody Awards[9] board of directors, which is presented by the University of Georgia's Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.