Al-Khatahtbeh grew up in New Jersey.[3] Her family temporarily relocated to Jordan in 2005 to escape Islamophobia.[4] She founded MuslimGirl in 2009 when she was 17 and a senior in high school.[5] With friends from her mosque, al-Khatahtbeh published blogs on the site. Following high school, she attended Rutgers University,[6] graduating in 2014. She then worked for a non-profit based in Washington, D.C. before moving to New York and briefly working for a major media organization.[7][8]