She was raised in Orange County and attended Richard Nixon Elementary School for two years. She lived in Mykonos, Greece after leaving high school. Afterward, she moved to Manhattan, New York where she worked as a flight attendant for a major airline. She now lives in Laguna Beach, California. She has had a variety of jobs, such as, babysitter, department store sales clerk, administrative assistant, office manager, jewelry maker, t-shirt painter, front desk hotel clerk, flight attendant for Delta Air Lines, and is now an author. She has spent most of her free time traveling and getting away from the suburban lifestyle. She was inspired to become an author after reading Are You There God? It's Me, Maragret by Judy Blume in the sixth grade. Her first book was the young-adult novel Faking 19, which explores the lifestyles of teens today.

Noël wrote the novels Saving Zoë, Kiss & Blog, Art Geeks and Prom Queens, Cruel Summer, Laguna Cove and Fly Me to the Moon.

Noël is writing a new sequence of novels called the Immortals series. The first book, Evermore, is a New York Times Bestseller, was released in February 2009. The next book in the series, Blue Moon, was released in July 7, 2009. It is a New York Times Bestseller. The third book in the series, Shadowland was released in November 2009. The fourth book in the series, Dark Flame was released June 22, 2010, and the fifth book, Night Star, will be released November 16, 2010. The sixth and final book will be out 2011.

Alyson Noel has received many awards for her writing. She has been published in 35 countries, and over two million copies were printed in the US. She is #1 New York Times Bestseller, USA Today Bestseller, Wall Street Journal Bestseller, Publisher’s Weekly Bestseller, NCIBA Bestseller, International Bestseller, listed in USA Today’s “Top 100 selling books of 2009”, and listed in the top 10 of Publisher’s Weekly’s “Overall Bestselling Children’s Books of 2009”. She was nominated for a CYBIL Award, a Quill Award, and for YALSA'S Teen Top Ten. She was chosen for the CBS Early Show's "Give the Gift of Reading" segment. Noel was also chosen for NYPL's "Stuff for the Teenage 2010", National Reader’s Choice Award winner, nominated for 2011 Abraham Lincoln Illinois High School Book Award, and nominated for 2009 Teen's Top Ten, NYLA Book of Winter Award winner, TeenReads Best Books of 2007, Reviewer’s Choice 2007 Top Ten. She was on the CBS Early Show’s “Give the Gift of Reading” segment, and selected for Seventeen Magazine’s “Hot List” and Beach Book Club Pick.

Noël is writing an Immortals spin-off series called The Riley Series with Riley (Ever's dead sister) as the protagonist. The first book, Radiance is was released August 31, 2010.

Immortals series

• Evermore (February 2009)
• Blue Moon (July 7, 2009)
• Shadowland (November 17, 2009)
• Dark Flame (June 22, 2010)
• Night Star (November 16, 2010)
• Untitled #6 (2011)

Other young adult fiction

• Faking 19 (2005)
• Art Geeks and Prom Queens (2005)
• Laguna Cove (2006)
• Fly Me to the Moon (2006)
• Kiss & Blog (2007)
• Saving Zoë (2007)
• Cruel Summer (2008)

The Riley series

• Radiance (August 31, 2010)
• Shimmer (Spring 2011)