 Her parents, Julian and Veronika Walasiewicz, settled in Cleveland, Ohio, where her father found a job as a steel mill worker.Her family called her "Stasia", a common Polish diminutive of her Christian name, which later gave birth to the American version of her name, Stella.Walasiewicz started her athletic career at South High School, a school located in the historic Slavic Village neighborhood on the east side of Cleveland, Ohio.