Dawber was born in Detroit, the older of two daughters of Thelma M. (née Fisher) and Eugene E. Dawber, a commercial artist.[1][2] She went to Reid Elementary School in Goodrich and attended North Farmington High School and Oakland Community College (OCC), with the intention of transferring to a four-year college.[3] She deferred her studies at OCC to do some modeling work and eventually dropped out after deciding to go into modeling full-time.