Ming Zhao was born in Human, China. Her family migrated to the America when she was 11 and settled in New York City. When she was high school, she attended Fashion Industries and then during college she got a BA in Fashion Design at Fashion Institute of Technology. She began modeling after college, though she had entered some modeling and joined design contests back in high school, and she had been in beauty pageants–she won “Miss Congeniality” in the “Miss Chinese USA” pageant and won the “Best Coordination Award” in the “China Cup” international fashion design competition.