White was born in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan on December 10, 1974, to Walter Hackett White, Jr. and Catherine White. She grew up in the affluent Detroit suburb with her parents and older sister, Heather. She attended Grosse Pointe North High School and, according to one classmate, was "always the quiet, obviously artistic type, and she just kept very much to herself." While still in high school, she decided not to go to college and instead began to work at Memphis Smoke, a restaurant in downtown Royal Oak, with aspirations of becoming a chef. It was there that she first met budding musician John "Jack" Gillis, a fellow high school senior from a Detroit neighborhood known as Mexicantown, and they frequented the coffee shops, local music venues, and record stores of the area. They began dating and were eventually married on September 21, 1996. Gillis took her last name.