[1] Andrea Lee was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1953, as the youngest of three children in a middle-class family; her father was a Baptist minister and her mother was an elementary school teacher.
Lee was born into an African American family, but quickly became surrounded by many white people which influenced her view of herself and later shaped her works.
She lived in the Soviet Union and kept a diary of observations of the people and culture, and drew from that for her first book, a memoir titled Russian Journal published in 1981.
She has explored points of view of educated young women from privileged backgrounds, negotiating European societies and questions of race and class.
"[6] Andrea Lee's work aims to combine adventure and imaginative pieces while grappling with complex topics of race, gender, class, and identity in the modern world.