She is known for her article in the March 2010 issue of Vanity Fair titled "The Suspects Wore Louboutins" which served as the basis for the 2013 film, The Bling Ring.
In the early 1970s, her family moved to Miami, and in 1980 to New Hampshire, where she attended the Phillips Exeter Academy and graduated in 1982 as a Presidential Scholar.
In 1986 she graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Yale University with a B.A.
[3] A 2011 Vanity Fair article called "The Quaid Conspiracy" won a Front Page Award for Best Magazine Feature.
[1] Her 2013 book The Bling Ring: How A Gang of Fame-Obsessed Teens Ripped Off Hollywood and Shocked the World recounts the true story behind the Sofia Coppola film The Bling Ring, which was based on a 2010 Vanity Fair piece by Sales, "The Suspects Wore Louboutins".