Karapetyan was born on August 27 , 1982 in Armenia 's second largest city of Gyumri ( then called Leninakan ) . She witnessed the 1988 Armenian earthquake that left her native city devastated . In an article written following a March 17 , 2014 earthquake in Los Angeles , Karapetyan wrote : " Every time we get a shaker here in Southern California I quickly have a flashback to my childhood . I was 6-years old in 1988 when a devastating earthquake hit my hometown in Gyumri . " Meanwhile , the ethnic conflict with Azerbaijan intensified as the Soviet Union was on its way to collapse . Due to these hardships her family emigrated to the United States in 1990 . She grew up in Palos Verdes Estates , California
1988 Armenian earthquake
1988 Armenian earthquake
Araksya Karapetyan