Born and raised in Australia, Selinda and her brother Baran were bullied by their peers for their emerging metahuman abilities. They used these abilities to lash out, and were eventually sent by their father to Dr Helga Jace. She taught them to develop and control their abilities, which made them much more powerful. Despite efforts to convince them to use their powers for good, Selinda and Baran turned to crime. Baran became Mammoth, while Selinda adopted the alias Shimmer. Shimmer was created by Marv Wolfman and George Perez, and she first appeared in The New Teen Titans #3, January 1981.