She grew up in Southern California speaking Spanglish, a combination of English and Spanish. This linguistic and cultural mixing would lead her to explore questions of language, translation and cultural authenticity in her poetry and academic study. As a senior at Cornell University Vanessa completed an undergraduate senior thesis entitled C- in Spanish for Bilinguals, which included both poetry composition and critical analysis. Currently she is a Ph.D. student in Comparative Studies in Literature and Culture at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.