Very little is known about Anna's childhood. During her early childhood, she, as well as her siblings in the royal nursery, were primarily under the care of her mother the queen's trusted nurse, Brigitta Lars Anderssons, her mothers cousin lady Margareta and the noble widow Ingrid Amundsdotter.[2] After the death of her mother in 1551, she as well as her siblings were placed in the care of Christina Gyllenstierna and then under her aunts Brita and Martha Leijonhufvud before her father's remarriage to Catherine Stenbock.[3] They were then under the responsibility of their stepmother and, more precisely, the head-lady-in-waiting Anna Hogenskild.