[2] She continued to win professional bouldering competitions throughout her childhood, but in her last two years of high school she turned away from climbing to focus her energy on track, and in 2007, she won the Wisconsin State Championships in pole vaulting.

[4][5] After her first World Cup stage win, Johnson left Minnesota State University and moved to Colorado to focus on bouldering.

She then moved to Europe to train with the Austrian team, but after a string of disappointing finishes in 2011 and a bout of debilitating depression, Johnson returned to the US.

[8] Although Johnson is best known as a competition climber, she has increasingly focused on outdoor climbing, and she has claimed the first female ascent of several notable outdoor problems, including Luminance, Whispers of Wisdom, Across the Tracks, Progressive Guy, Vigilante, Stake Your Claim, Diesel Power, Beyond Life, Dark Horse, Seek and Destroy, and Prune Tang at the V10 grade, Stand and Deliver, Drive On, Divergence, Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves, and Double Stack at V11, and Clear Blue Skies, The Mystery, Diaphanous Sea, and Lethal Design, and Book of Nightmares at V12.

[4] In 2018, Johnson accepted a job offer for head coach of her hometown gym, Vertical Endeavors, in St. Paul Minnesota and moved there with her girlfriend.