Born in Norwich, NY in 1976, Stephanie Trong is the daughter of a Vietnamese-American engineering executive and his wife, an American woman of European descent from New Jersey. Stephanie moved with her parents from New York State to Texas as a child and graduated from the University of Texas - Austin with a bachelor's degree in journalism in 1998.

Stephanie Trong joined Jane Magazine, a trendy publication for young women 18 to 34, in early 1999 as an editorial assistant and has since been promoted to assistant editor, associate editor, senior editor and Deputy Editor. She is second only to Jane Pratt, the founder and editor-in-chief of the Magazine in the direction of all editorial aspects of this publication (with circulation approaching one million monthly).