Lelani Coetzee grew up in Johannesburg and matriculated from Hoërskool Randburg in 2012 as Dux Scholar. She started studying at the University of Pretoria in 2013 where she obtained a bachelor degree in Econometrics in 2015 and an honours degree in Econometrics in 2016. In 2016 she also completed an advanced certificate in Emerging Markets and Country Risk Analysis at Fordham University in New York.

Lelani was invited to join the Golden Key International Honours Society in 2014, and was the runner-up for the ERSA sponsored Economic Achievement Award for 3^rd year level Economics at the University of Pretoria.

She has worked at the Department of Economics at the University of Pretoria as an assistant lecturer since 2016 and is currently also working as a research assistant to Professor Manoel Bittencourt.

Lelani is currently studying toward a MCom in Econometrics with a research interest in economic growth and development. Her thesis will be focused on the relationship between international trade and fertility, specifically studying the extent to which international trade affects the demographic transition in African countries and thus the economic growth and development of those countries.

Upon completion of her masters degree she would like to work as an economist at an economic consulting firm to apply the knowledge she has acquired to a diverse range of economic problems.