Ariel Levy grew up in Larchmont, New York. She attended Wesleyan University where she studied American literature and critical theory. After college she worked briefly for Planned Parenthood, but was fired after just one week because she is an extremely poor typist. Almost immediately thereafter, she was hired at New York magazine as a typist. She has been typing there ever since. Her work also appears in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Vogue, Slate, Men's Journal and Blender magazines.