Early Life
Stowe, the first of three children, was born in Los Angeles, California and raised in Eagle Rock, a suburb of Los Angeles. Her mother, Mireya (née Mora Steinvorth), had come from a prominent family in Costa Rica. Her father, Robert Stowe, was a civil engineer from a "poor Oregon family". One of Stowe's maternal great-great-grandfathers, politician José Joaquín Mora Porras, was a younger brother of President Juan Rafael Mora Porras, who governed Costa Rica between 1849-1859. Another one of Stowe's maternal great-great-grandfathers was Bruno Carranza, President of Costa Rica in 1870, albeit briefly, as he resigned three months after taking power. His wife, Stowe's great-great-grandmother, Gerónima Montealegre, was the sister of President José María Montealegre Fernández, who governed Costa Rica from 1859-1863. One of Stowe's maternal great-grandfathers was a German immigrant to Costa Rica.
Stowe's father suffered from multiple sclerosis, and she accompanied him to medical treatments.
She originally aspired to become a concert pianist, taking piano lessons between the ages of 10 and 18. Stowe would later explain that playing the piano was a means of escape from having to socialize with other children her age. Her Russian-born music teacher, Sergei Tarnowsky, had faith in Stowe, even teaching her from his deathbed. Following his death at the age of 96, she quit, later commenting: "I just felt it was time to not be by myself anymore." Stowe went on her first date at the age of 18.
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