Amy Carter was born on October 19, 1967, in Plains, Georgia. In 1970 her father was elected Governor of Georgia, and then in 1976, President of the United States.

In January 1977, at the age of nine, Carter entered the White House, where she lived for four years. She was the subject of much media attention during this period, as young children had not lived in the White House since the early 1960s presidency of John F. Kennedy (and would not again do so after the Carter presidency until the inauguration of Bill Clinton, in January 1993, when Chelsea moved in.)

Carter attended Brown University but was academically dismissed in 1987, “for failing to keep up with her course work”. She later earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree (BFA) from the Memphis College of Art and received a master’s degree in art history from Tulane University in New Orleans in 1996.

Carter illustrated The Little Baby Snoogle-Fleejer, her father’s book for children, published in 1995.

In September 1996, Carter married computer consultant James Gregory Wentzel, whom she had met while attending Tulane; Wentzel was a manager at Chapter Eleven, an Atlanta bookstore, where Carter worked part-time. Carter kept her own family name and the couple moved to the Atlanta area, where they focused on raising their son, Hugo James Wentzel (b. 1999).