Emma Grace Frost is a powerful mutant telepath born to a rich Boston mercantile family. After parting ways with her family, she became the White Queen of the Hellfire Club and began a financial empire as the CEO of Frost International.

Starting as an enemy of the X-Men, and clashing with the New Mutants and New Warriors, she later had a tragic accident that changed her heart for the better. Putting her love for teaching to good use, but never afraid to cross the line of the "morally correct", she became the co-headmaster of the new Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, where she trained the latest generation of mutants, known as Generation X.