[1] Sonnenschein was born in the Dutch town of Kerkrade, but is originally from Amsterdam and moved shortly after her birth with her family to Mozambique.
[2][3] From a young age, Sonnenschein trained with swimming club Golfinhos de Maputo, and achieved good early results.
[4] In 2011, She moved to the Netherlands at the age of 15 in order to train for her swimming career and competing in the Olympics.
In 2014 Sonnenschein also the first timecompeted at the 2014 Summer Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, where she was flag bearer of the Mozambican delegation.
[7] Sonnenschein qualified well for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and was part of the six-member delegation athletes Mozambique.