Her parents were August Lönn (1837–1920), captain of a steamship on lake Mälaren, and Erika Charlotta Persdotter Jonsson.

Thereafter she worked for the journal Strix in Stockholm until 1901, signing her articles Maja X. Albert Engström, the founder and editor of Strix, initially refused to believe that Maja X was a woman, reportedly saying that "no woman could be that funny".

[1][4] Alving was one of the few Swedes of the day who introduced ordinary local people into her stories.

[5] Barbro Alving has described her parents Fanny and Hjalmar as being very happy and her childhood as full of laughter.

[6] However, Fanny Alving also suffered from severe depressions, and in 1936 she had a psychotic episode which led to her being hospitalised for some time.