Saum was born in Dayton, Ohio[1] to a German mother and an African-American father.[2] She got her start at a Model Search America convention near her home in Kettering, Ohio.[3] She was discovered during high school, modeling mostly during summer breaks until she moved to New York to work full-time with the NY modeling agency Images Management. Saum attended Ohio State University in Columbus, and New York University in New York.[4]