bergdorf was born and grew up in stansted mountfitchet, essex. bergdorf is mixed-race, born to an afro-jamaican father and a white english mother. bergdorf attended bentfield county primary school in stansted mountfitchet and then bishop's stortford high school, an all-boys school. bergdorf describes growing up as a "very effeminate boy". later, she studied english at the university of brighton, describing herself there as genderqueer.