Gorman attended University City High School, graduated at the age of 16, and then enrolled in Fontbonne College, receiving a degree in fine arts in 1983. Her interest in photography did not start until college, when she inherited her father's Leica camera after he died, at which point she took her first ever photography class. In 1981 she worked for St. Louis Mayor Vincent C. Schoemehl, and in 1982 she became an intern for Rick Gould, a local fashion photographer.
