After the events, the McGowan family returned to the States when Rose was 10-years old. She ended up living in Oregon with her mother. “Of all the horrible places to live in, my mother had randomly chosen Oregon, which was Tonya Harding Land. All the kids in the school I went to had that little chicken-hawk, feathery thing going on with their hair, and every one of them came up to me in the first week and said, ‘You're the ugliest thing I've ever seen!’ I was pretty much in the smart-kid classes, so I was with the eight kids who were total outcast nerds with bad dandruff.” Already at such a young age, she had a unique style that set her apart from the rest of the crowd. “I had short, choppy, dyed, jet-black hair and I wore red lipstick. I still have four little '40s-style men's suits that were my favorites from this one shoot that I did. I wore them all the time. I certainly looked strange.” Rose, who did not really fit into any box or clique, would often hide in the library and disappear reading a good book. “I'd live with one foot in a book, and one foot in reality, and every week I'd have a different accent.”

Rose began working at age 13, and her favorite job was as an usherette at a movie theater. When 14, one of her mother's then-boyfriends - a 28-year old surfer dude - convinced her mother, Terri, that Rose was doing drugs because she was thin and always wore black. She was locked up in a drug rehab clinic, although she has insisted she never had a problem. Released, McGowan was homeless for a year before teaming up with a new friend. Together they roamed all over Oregon and Washington. “I've always been a wanderer”, she says. Next Rose traveled to Portland, where she would safely hang out and dance the night away at gay clubs without being disturbed by men… Except she was once gay bashed and knocked unconscious because someone thought she was a lesbian! “But this isn't even an eighth of the things that happened to me. My formative years were like Mr. Toad's wild ride. As a result, things don't faze me much anymore.”

Rose emancipated legally from her parents at the age of 15, even representing herself in the court! She went on to live in Seattle with her aunt and attended Roosevelt High School. Rose also went to an art school for a while and then stayed in Montreal with her father.