Stoya

Stoya was born in Wilmington, North Carolina and has Puerto Rican, Scottish and Serbian ancestry. As a child, she wanted to become a dancer and started attending dance lessons at the age of three. She was home-schooled and got her high-school diploma before the age of sixteen.

Because her father worked in IT, Stoya had access to a lot of electronics and gaming equipment, which she says developed her love for technology.

"I was three when I was using DOS. My mom taught me how to read, and my dad taught me how to navigate DOS", she has said.

At a later age, Stoya moved to Delaware, where she spent a semester at Delaware College of Art & Design, but later dropped out.

After relocating to Philadelphia, she attended a summer program at UArts. Some of her jobs in Philadelphia included being a secretary, flier distributor, and a go-go dancer. Stoya appeared in several music videos for bands that, according to her, "no one will ever hear of." Read Less