[1] Melanie Astles was born on 30 May 1982 in Rugby, England, to a French mother and a British father.

Brought up in the south of France in a very modest home environment she went to school in Monaco and left at the age of eighteen before graduating.

She was also told her low scores in maths and physics would make this dream impossible.

Upon leaving school she found a job working at a gas station, and became a manager at another a year later.

It was at this time she met Laurent Gil her first instructor who immediately recognized her talent and encouraged her to pursue a career professionally.

She returned to competition in 2010 competing at the "Promotion" level and won the North Cup as well as the French championship.

In 2011 she decided she wanted to skip ahead in competition levels, but was met with restraint as various managers of the federation were not happy with her confidence in attempting to supersede the usual trajectory.