Mia's mother Helen is an upbeat artist who is featured various times in Art in America magazine. Helen's painting Woman Waiting for Price Check at the Grand Union won her a national award. Helen comes from a fairly simple, typical American background, growing up on a farm in Indiana.
Some of Mia's headstrong and modern opinions, including her feminism, come from Helen, who is known to go on protest marches for various causes. Helen met Mia's father during a party in college, after which she conceived Mia after a condom broke. She is a very caring mother, albeit forgetful, to both Mia and her half-brother, Rocky, who is the son of Helen and Frank Ginanni, Mia's Algebra teacher and Helen's husband.