Jenkins was born July 24, 1971 at an air force base in Victorville, California. Her father was William T. Jenkins, an Air Force captain and fighter pilot who earned a Silver Star in the Vietnam War. Her mother was Emily Roth, who worked in San Francisco as an environmental scientist. She has an older sister, Elaine Roth. She lived in Lawrence, Kansas from when she was in kindergarten through her junior year of high school.