Natallya Afanasyeva was born in Novokuznetsk, Russia, in 1937. She graduated from Belarusian Polytechnic Institute in 1960, proceeding to work at Minskpraekt institute, where she eventually rose to the position of project head. Afanasyeva was married to architect Leanid Levin; their daughter Galina Levina (b. 1963) also became an architect.

Afanasyeva designed the building of the planetarium and observatory at Gorky Central Children Park in Minsk (1964), and participated in the development of numerous urban development schemes, including miscrodistrict Rakau highway-2, the General Plan of the Development of Minsk until the Year 1980 (1965), residential neighborhoods on Aeradromnaya (1968) and Gorkaga (1970) streets, microdisctricts South-West-2, -3, -5, and -9 (1976), the skyline of Minsk (1974), and the award-winning General Plan of the Development of Minsk until the Year 2000 (1982).