mina was born in 1980 to mary and james nurmi in suffolk, england. from an early age she showed a particular interest in the darker side of life; she adopted wednesday addams as her personal heroin and always preferred the villains to the heroes in disney films. as she grew up she gravitated towards the works of edgar allan poe and edward gorey. but mina was never a sad child, in fact she was gregarious and liked to be the center of attention whenever possible. when she was three her brother was born and although she loved him, she did not appreciate sharing the limelight.

school was not somewhere she enjoyed being. although intelligent mina struggled with academics and often found herself in trouble for talking too much or simply daydreaming. the one class she excelled at was art and due to the praise it afforded her she became obsessed with drawing. at that age she drew what she knew so her sketches were a collection of dark and macabre imagery. it wasn't long before her teachers suggested she may benefit from "talking to someone" and so a psychiatrist was called and mina was evaluated.

her parents were never particularly worried about their daughter, despite her interests she had always seemed fine. the specialist agreed and could find nothing mentally wrong with little mina. however, the seed of potential depression had been planted and mina's growth was punctuated by a dark cloud.