well the tl;dr version is she was the daughter of a prominent new york family before it all fell apart due to a scandal on her father's end and her mother quickly distanced herself from him in order to save her own name and face -- hannah actually helped with bringing her own father down by talking to the investigators and everything because it was the right thing to do, even if it meant shattering everything she knew and changed her entire reality and direction in life. instead of having school paid for and her life "set", she had to navigate and find a way to get internships, scholarships, etc while dealing with being saddled by her father's name.
BUT like steph, she's headstrong, stubborn, and throws herself into whatever she feels is what she should be doing, so she busted her ass in order to make a success out of herself and almost derailed once or twice and had some setbacks, but she was determined to see it through. i was thinking she was involved with law or something to try to make it up to families her dad screwed over, but that's tbd. she's currently making her way through grad school because of the stubborn need to see things through, ESPECIALLY when someone tells her she can't/won't do something.