Cupcake Brown was erroneously named when a nurse misunderstood her mother's post-delivery request. She remembers a happy childhood until the age of eleven when her mother died of a seizure. She was placed in several foster homes, in which she was abused both physically and sexually. She ran away and was subsequently introduced to prostitution. She later joined a gang after moving in with an aunt in LA. A few days before she turned sixteen, Brown was shot by a rival gang in a drive-by. The doctors told her that she may not be able to walk again. Three weeks after that, she decided to quit being a gang member and later that same year, she left the foster care system, declared legally emancipated. As an adult, Brown obtained work in a law firm, but continued struggling with drug addiction until she reached out to her boss for assistance. Thereafter, she earned her college degree at San Diego State University and attended law school at the University of San Francisco, graduating in 2001 with the Judge Harold J. Haley award for "unusual distinction, scholarship, character and activities" Brown went on to become a lawyer, as of 2006 earning $165,000 dollars a year.

She wrote an autobiography called A Memoir.