Mona was born March 14, 1988, and raised in Hempstead, Texas to a working class family. Her mother worked for the state of Texas and her father is a Greek American mechanic. Her parents divorced when she was 5 and subsequently she was raised by her mother, who remarried in 2000. She's stated that while her parents don't like everything she does, they get along. Mona attended four high schools, among them Hempstead High, before graduating, having been unhappy in each one, though she graduated a year early at 17. In autumn 2005, she attended junior college and took classes in computer science and criminology. She waited tables at a steakhouse through March 2006 and saved $7,000 for a move to Houston.