Board Thread:Speculation House/@comment-17760348-20131021233145/@comment-22580009-20131221202030

I don't know why, but I always assumed that Pyrrha grew up fairly poor, perhaps living in areas with the Faunus, because living with the outcasts is all they could afford. Then when Pyrrha showed a talent and saught to do more with that, they encouraged her. Eventually she got good enough to compete in the tournament, and won. She gave the prize money to her parents, but continued training. The entire reason she kept winning was to earn the prize money to help her family. Eventually she got into Beacon, her family supported by the money she had earned from advertisements, tournaments, endorsements, and other such things.

Of course this is all my on crack theory, and I doubt most of it will be even close to true, but that's my impression. This could relate back to her interest in Jaune either because he reminds her of someone that she knew, or because she sees his potential as a strong person and wants to help him as people helped her.