Bonin made her body fitness debut in 2006, at the age of 19. In 2007, Bonin won the National Physique Committee (NPC) John Sherman Classic Bodybuilding Figure and Fitness Championship, and came fifth at the Arnold Classic in the NPC Figure Class D competition. She also was in the top five at Musclemania Superbody in 2007, in the Figure Universe – Tall category. In 2008, she was named Miss November at the Hardfitness Calendar, and placed 16th at the NPC Junior Nationals that same year in the NPC Figure category. In 2008, she was part of the Hardfitness Calendar and in 2009, Bonin appeared in Flex Magazine.

Bonin started her career as a body fitness model. In 2007, she won the National Physique Committee (NPC) John Sherman Classic Bodybuilding Figure and Fitness Championship, and came in fifth at the Arnold Classic in the NPC Figure Class D competition.

On the December 3, 2010, episode of SmackDown, Kaitlyn appeared in a backstage segment with Vickie Guerrero and Dolph Ziggler, announcing that SmackDown General Manager Theodore Long had signed her to the brand following her victory on NXT. She had her first match on SmackDown on January 28, 2011, where she and Kelly Kelly were defeated by LayCool (Layla and Michelle McCool).

In August 2012, Kaitlyn was given a job from SmackDown General Manager Booker T as his assistant, but was afterwards put in a match against an angry Eve Torres in which the winner would be awarded the job. Kaitlyn lost the assistant job to Eve the following week. On August 20, Kaitlyn won a battle royal by lastly eliminating Eve to become number one contender to Layla's Divas Championship. Eve then started acting disingenuous towards Kaitlyn and Layla, leaving them confused. At Night of Champions on September 16, Kaitlyn was attacked by a masked figure, causing her ankle to get injured in the storyline and forcing her title opportunity to get forfeited to Eve. Kaitlyn later stated that the attacker was blonde, leading to Beth Phoenix becoming the suspect. On October 8, Kaitlyn was defeated by Eve in her first Divas Championship match, and was afterwards saved by Layla after Eve attempted to re-injure her. Kaitlyn later confronted Eve about her attacker, revealing it to be Aksana, who was instructed by Eve to attack her at Night of Champions, and ended in a brawl also involving Layla. This led to a tag team match on October 26, where Kaitlyn teamed alongside Layla in a loss to Eve and Aksana after Kaitlyn was accidentally kicked by Layla. Kaitlyn received another shot for the Divas Championship at the Hell in a Cell event, but was again defeated by Eve in a triple threat match, also involving Layla.

In October 2013, Bonin made her video game debut in WWE 2K14 as a playable character.

Bonin married Bodybuilder PJ Braun on June 20, 2014. On February 27, 2017, she announced that she was splitting from her husband. The divorce was finalized on September 26, 2017. Her wrestling idol is Goldberg. She is of Mexican descent through her mother, who hails from Mexico.

In June 2015, Bonin and her then-husband opened a smoothie bar inside the Busy Body Fitness Center in Boca Raton, Florida.

Bonin occasionally works for Hardbodynews.com, contributing with interviews, photo ops and blogs. Bonin appeared on the cover of the April 2016 edition of Iron Man magazine.

On December 22, 2017, Coastal Championship Wrestling announced that Bonin was to come out of retirement and make her in-ring return on February 10, 2018. At the event, titled Breaking Chains, Bonin competed under her real name and defeated Rachael Ellering in singles action.