Based on her Columbia thesis, 2000's Girls on the Verge examines modern coming-of-age rituals for young women, including gang initiations and sorority rushes (for the latter, she impersonated a prospective sorority sister).

Published in 2003, And Now You Can Go is a novel set in New York, San Francisco, and the Philippines, tracing the impulsive journeys of a young woman in the wake of an assault. In a Guardian article Vida voices her plan to author a trilogy of novels "on the subject of violence and rage." The second novel Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name takes place in Lapland and was published in 2007. Vida's new novel, The Lovers, was published in June 2010 by Ecco.

She and Eggers are the parents of a daughter, October Adelaide Eggers Vida, born in October 2005, and a son born in December 2008. With Eggers, she is a co-founder and board member of 826 Valencia, a nonprofit organization that teaches creative writing to children and teens. Vida and Eggers collaborated on the screenplay for the 2009 film Away We Go, directed by Sam Mendes.

Vendela Vida is also the inspiration for a 2010 song of the same name by indie/folk rock band Dinosaur Feathers on their album Know your own strength.