Janina Valavičūtė was born in Veliakiemiai village, Šeduva rural district, Panevėžys county. She went to a primary school in Pakalniškiai and then to Šeduva gymnasium, which she finished in 1945. In the same year she became a student of the Russian language and literature at the Pedagogical Department of the Faculty of History and Philology of Vilnius University. Several years later she requested a transfer to study the Lithuanian language and literature. Her studies were disrupted by deportation in 1949. She was released from exile in 1956 but returned to Lithuania eight years later.