Hansell was born in Los Angeles, California on July 11, 1897 to Edward and T. Belle (Carey) Hansell. Her father was an Englishman who arrived in the United States in 1877. Her mother was from Iowa.
Hansell found work as a stenographer and then as a dressmaker on the Warner Bros. lot. She managed to find work in cartoons at the Walt Disney Studios and provided squeaks for Mickey Mouse. That same year, she found work in the Leon Schlesinger Productions and Walter Lantz Productions.