Olsen began acting when she was four years old, appearing in Mary-Kate and Ashley's projects, including the 1994 television film "How the West Was Fun" and the straight-to-video series "The Adventures of Mary-Kate &amp; Ashley". As a child, she took acting classes and spent time at musical theatre camp. Olsen nearly quit pursuing acting in 2004 due to the media attention toward Mary-Kate's eating disorder. She went to Campbell Hall School in Studio City, California. Olsen attended New York University (NYU)'s Tisch School of the Arts, during which she took classes at Atlantic Theater Company and spent a semester at the Moscow Art Theatre School in Russia. She attained understudy roles in the 2008 off-Broadway production of the play "Dust" and the 2009 Broadway production of the play "Impressionism", which led to her securing an agent. Olsen graduated from NYU in January 2013.