Her parents were folk high school teachers Kurt Holger Juul and Inge Kærsgaard Hansen.

She grew up in Skælskør before moving to the village Rørbæk in Himmerland at the age of six with her parents, her brother, and her younger sister.

[2][3] Juul graduated from Hobro Gymnasium in 1981 and enrolled in English studies at Aarhus University, but later dropped out.

[1] From 1989 to 1993, Juul was the co-editor of Danish literary magazine Den Blå Port [da].

[6] Following the global surveillance disclosures in 2013, Juul joined over a thousand writers worldwide including Umberto Eco and T. C. Boyle in signing an appeal to create an international convention on digital rights to prevent governments and corporations from abusing technology for surveillance purposes.