Alyson Noël was born on December 3, 1965, raised in Orange County and attended Richard Nixon Elementary School for two years. She is the youngest of three girls born to her divorced parents.[2] She lived in Mykonos, Greece after leaving her high school, Troy High School.[3] Afterward, she moved to Manhattan, New York where she worked as a flight attendant for Delta Air Lines. She now lives in Laguna Beach, California. She has had a variety of jobs such as babysitter, department store sales clerk, administrative assistant, office manager, jewelry maker, T-shirt painter, and front desk hotel clerk, in addition to flight attendant and considers her self an author.[4] She was inspired to become an author after reading Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume, in the sixth grade. Her first book was the young-adult novel, Faking 19, which explores the lifestyles of teens today.