James Van Der Beek Reveals Daughter, 12, Discovered His Cry-Face Meme: 'Interesting to Navigate'

The WB; James Van Der Beek/Instagram

James Van Der Beek's kids are growing up and learning about their dad's fame.

While chatting with PEOPLE about his partnership with Libby's Vegetables to benefit hunger relief organization Meals on Wheels America, the Dawson's Creek alum admitted that his oldest — daughter Olivia, 12 — has discovered his viral meme from the hit teen drama.

"For some online learning, we got them iPads and they immediately discovered memes," the dad of six tells PEOPLE. "So it started, my eldest sent me a meme of myself."

Willing to play along, the actor "sent her one of me dancing or something," to which she responded with the actor's crying face.

"She immediately hit me with the cry face," he says while laughing, adding," I thought, 'That's aggressive.' "

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Courtesy of Libby's Vegetables

When it comes to others being aware of who he is, Van Der Beek says Joshua, 10, "can sniff out" when people recognize his famous father.

"My son can sniff out when we walk into a restaurant and somebody recognizes me — the skill that took me like 20 years to learn," he says. "And he just gets it: 'Daddy, those ladies at the table right now? They know.' It's interesting."

When it comes to explaining fame to his little ones — which also include daughters Gwendolyn, 4, Emilia, 6, and Annabel, 8, and son Jeremiah, 12 months — the actor tries to be "really honest about all of my experience with it, about what it means and what it doesn't."

"It's a cool thing to be able to make somebody smile just from a really simple social interaction, and that's really pretty much all that it is when you're out and about," he explains. "It's been an interesting thing to navigate but I think they all, I think they only kind of get it."

RELATED: James Van Der Beek Jokes About His 6 Kids' 'Ad-Libbed' Halloween Costumes 'Moments Before Leaving'

vanderjames/Instagram

The family recently celebrated Jeremiah's first birthday, which has been a full-circle moment for all of them.

"I mean, this is going to sound weird, but when he arrived we honestly just thought, 'Oh my God, how did we exist without him?' " he shares. "Which is insane because we have five children before that. But given everything we went through leading up to him, the fact that he was a boy, was just so healing for us. And he anchors the family in a really beautiful way."

Noting that his "girls all dote on him" and he's happy his "son has a brother," he says Jeremiah has been a "magical" final piece to their family."

"Everything really is bigger in Texas. He's by far the biggest baby we've ever made by a long shot," he says. "He's really been a blessing. Whatever he costs in sleep — and is still costing in sleep — he's just well worth it."