Mikaela Saelua is the youngest child of Fiu John Saelua and Catherine Saelua, and a member of the Sa Fiu and Sa Avegalio clans. She was born and raised in her home village of Leone in American Samoa, where she currently resides. While at UCLA she was an active member of the Pacific Islands Student Association (PISA) as well as the educational outreach project Pacific Islander Education Retention (PIER). After completing her degree at UCLA, she moved back to American Samoa to work as a high school teacher, and is currently teaching English in the high school she graduated from, Leone High School. She is also involved in the Society of Faafafine in American Samoa (SOFIAS), which does community and charity work for the faafafine community as well as the community at large.
Mikaela graduated from UCLA in 2013 with a Bachelors of Arts in Political Science with a minor in Asian American Studies.