Stephanie Teresa Renea Gentry was born in Houston, Texas on June 23rd 1987 to parents Tim and Tammie. She started in the sport at the age of seven when her mother enrolled her in classes as a small recreational gym in Houston after falling in love with the sport herself by watching it on television. Stephanie fell in love with the sport imediately saying that she enjoyed the challenge of gymnastics. Stephanie joined WOGA team at Level 8, gained elite status in 1999 and achieved one of her career goals by qualifying to the 2000-2001 Junior USA National Team with a strong tenth place finish at the USA Championships that year. Now years later Stephanie is moving into the next phase of her gymnastics career as an athlete on the Stanford University Gymnastics Team.

Stephanie is known as hardworking gymnast. "She is a very determined athlete and strives for perfection and at meets she is very aggressive and confident." said Marie Fjordholm who trained alongside Stephanie at WOGA until 2000. Her former coach Evgeny Marchenko believes that she has all the attributes of a great gymnast saying that she is "light, strong, [and] fast" while a friend and another former teammate, Lindsey Vaden Eykel, believes that Stephanie's desire to work hard in the gym shows that she has got what is takes for success in the sport. Stephanie's gymnastics is characterised by strong acrobatics and a special flair for presentation. Like all elite athletes Stephanie's commitment to gymnastics and to her education means that her schedule is always extremely full. Along with her college teammates she trains up to 20 hours a week at the gym and in addition is a sophomore student at the Stanford University. Even though Stephanie is a busy teenager she finds the time to enjoy the same things which all college students do. She enjoys hanging out with friends, listening to music and reading. As for her future aspirations in gymnastics Stephanie dreams Stanford to win NCAA's as a team and individually to get All-American.