Van der Pol was born in Naaldwijk, Netherlands, to Willem van der Pol, who is Dutch and the director of the Physical Plant at the California State University in Fullerton, California, and Dyan Ross, an American from Brooklyn, New York. Van der Pol's mother named her after Anne Frank after visiting the house where Frank hid (van der Pol's mother is Jewish). Van der Pol has two older sisters, Rachel and Sarah. Van der Pol's family moved to the United States when she was three years old, and she retains dual American and Dutch citizenship.