Her ascent has been swift. Born in Pennsylvania, Cooper grew up in a middle-class family with a father who was a television producer for hockey games, which she described as “the most magical thing in the world”, in her 2025 documentary Call Her Alex. Badly bullied at school, she fell in love with playing soccer, where she was immersed in a world of nice girls who finally wanted to have sleepovers. By the time she went to Boston University she was one of the best college soccer players in the country, competing in nationwide tournaments on a full-tuition athletic scholarship. But at university, her documentary claimed, Cooper was subjected to a years-long campaign of sexual harassment by her coach, Nancy Feldman. She told the school, but says it protected Feldman, and Cooper ultimately quit the team. It devastated her and fuelled her ambition. “I never wanted to be silent again,” Cooper said, “so I never was.”
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