Anri du Toit was born on December 1, 1984 in [[Port Alfred]], South Africa. She was [[adopted]] by [[clergyman]] [[Reverend]] Ben du Toit and his wife, and had an adoptive older brother, Leon (d. 2015).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.netwerk24.com/Nuus/Yolandi-Visser-se-broer-sterf-20150802|title=Yolandi Visser se broer sterf|website=article.wnNetwerk24.com|access-date=6 February 2020|archive-date=6 February 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200206072846/https://www.netwerk24.com/Nuus/Yolandi-Visser-se-broer-sterf-20150802|url-status=live}}</ref> Growing up, she has said she felt like she did not fit in or belong anywhere, and describes herself as 'a little punk' who frequently got into fistfights, and listened to the music of [[Nirvana (band)|Nirvana]], [[PJ Harvey]], [[Nine Inch Nails]], [[Cypress Hill]], [[Eminem]], [[Marilyn Manson]] and [[Aphex Twin]].<ref name="auto">{{Cite web|url=https://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/23706/1/yo-landi-visser-dark-star|title=Yo-landi Visser's rise from hood rat to heroine|last=Dazed|date=2015-02-26|website=Dazed|language=en|access-date=2020-02-13|archive-date=8 January 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200108201450/https://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/23706/1/yo-landi-visser-dark-star|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web |date=2015-03-06 |title=Yolandi Visser |url=https://www.carolineryder.com/carolineryder/2015/03/yolandi-visser_6.html |access-date=2024-07-21 |website=CAROLINE RYDER |language=en-US}}</ref> At the age of 16, du Toit was sent to [[Pretoria]] to attend [[Hoërskool Menlopark|Die Hoërskool Menlopark]], a [[boarding school]] which was nine hours away from her family's home. Du Toit said that she blossomed among other creative and artistic-minded people while there.<ref name="auto" />
Du Toit does not know much about her biological parents, and questioned her ethnicity after a portrait artist specializing in identifying genetic history told her she has a facial structure similar to [[coloureds]]. Visser initially thought she was [[White South Africans|white]], but now thinks that because she was born during [[apartheid]], her white mother’s parents may have forced her to give her baby up for adoption, after getting pregnant by a black man.<ref name=":0" />
