Lin was born on May 17, 1974. Her parents were immigrants. She grew up in New York. She has one older sister named Lissy, and a younger sister named Ki-Ki. She married a man named Robert Mercer. He died from cancer in 2007. te a book called "Robert’s Snow" to raise money for cancer research. She now has a daughter who was born in 2012. In 2010, she married her second husband, Alex. Lin is a graduate of Rhode Island School of Design. She lives in Florence, Massachusetts.