Johnson was born and raised in Ames, Iowa.[1][2] She enjoyed dance as a child and wrote poems in high school.[1] She danced with the Iowa State University dance department in high school and later studied dance at Columbia College Chicago and the University of Iowa. Johnson left college early in order to pursue a professional career in dance.[7][8] She eventually became a principal dancer at the Kanopy Dance Company, the resident company at the Overture Center for the Arts in Madison, Wisconsin.[3] During her six years at Kanopy, Johnson returned to school, attending Madison College and Edgewood College. There, she was convinced to begin studying writing.[3][7] She went on to the University of Akron where she entered and completed the Northeast Ohio Master of Fine Arts program (NEOMFA) in creative writing in 2014.[9][10]