Taahira Butterfield was born on 5 October 2000, and raised in Devonshire Parish, Bermuda. She attended Cedarbridge Academy, and then moved to the United States to study at the University at Albany, SUNY in New York. Butterfield competed for Bermuda at the CARIFTA Games from 2011 onwards, and at the 2012 Central American and Caribbean Junior Championships in Athletics in San Salvador, El Salvador.