Emma Frost is a powerful and influential mutant telepath, most notoriously known as the White Queen of the Hellfire Club and occasional headmistress of the Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. Born to a rich Boston mercantile family, she parted ways with her family and built a financial empire with Frost International, ascending to a ruling position in the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club. Demonstrating a particular interest in education, Frost ran the Massachusetts Academy, a preparatory school that secretly housed young mutants trained for her own interests, the Hellions.