Ann E. Leak was born in Georgia on December 23, 1839. In spite of a prediction by her mother's physician that she would die within a few days, she survived. While behind other's her age in learning to walk she eventually learned to use her feet as most use their hands. She became so adept at using her feet she could skillfully sew and braid hair.
 
Like many, her family lost their money and livelihood during the Civil War, so Miss Leak provided financially for both herself and them. For a while she gave classes in braiding, but the money wasn't enough to support both her and her parents, so she, reluctantly at first, chose to exhibit her skills.
 
Her first gig was at Barnum's American Museum, something that she found difficult. But she accepted this way of life and, as she says in her autobiography,

Only the conviction that it seemed best reconciled me to it. My lot was not one of my own choosing, but such as Providence had assigned me, and my feet seemed to be directed in the path that I was about to tread. It is the doom of man that his sky should never be altogether without clouds.