Waliszewska was born in Warsaw, where she still lives and works. Her mother and grandmother were both sculptors, and her mother was also a skilled drawer. Waliszewska began creating art from an early age, and claims to have made her first art sale at the age of 10, trading a book of drawings for a package of sesame snaps.
The psychiatrist Andrzej Samson was an early admirer. She struggled with art in school, and admits to having cheated on her art school entrance exams. Graduating from art school in 2001, she received a scholarship from the Minister of Culture and Art in 2003. Waliszewska has stated that Pieter Bruegel's Landscape with the Fall of Icarus is a favorite of hers, and that art has been in decline since the Quattrocento, but also claims the 16th-century Polish artists Tomasz Treter and Jan Ziarnko as influences. She credits a 2006 viewing of the Japanese film Tamala 2010: A Punk Cat in Space with allowing her to move her focus away from "high art".