Joanna Gaines is a superwoman who can literally do it all. The author appeared on the Today Show to promote her newly-released memoir The Stories We Tell, reveal some intimate details about her life and background, and admit her mild obsession with perfectionism.
Keep reading for the details.
Gaines, raised in the rural part of Kansas as a little girl, opened up on how it felt growing up as a person of mixed origin. She was shy, self-conscious, and usually the target of teasing and racism because she had a Korean mother and an American father.
While the author tried her best to blend in with the other kids and act unbothered at their jabs, it didn't make the experience any less jarring, as she stated in the book.
She also watched her mom experience racism at the grocery store, where people steal glances at her and mumble quiet insults under their breath, and her mom would pretend not to notice.
All these traumatic childhood experiences culminated in Gaines feeling shame and insecurity as a grown-up.
One of the effects of her childhood trauma is the star's intense drive for perfectionism which, in her own words, equated to control and affected the operation of Magnolia, a home and lifestyle brand created by Gaines.
In The Stories We Tell, she expressed her fear of failure, the future, and what people would think.
"I was fearing a whole lot of things... I was exhausted by my own obsession with trying to hide our reality and keep all the balls in the air."
The health and lifestyle enthusiast revealed her obsession led to her feeling isolated and alone and traced all this excessive behavior as a trauma response that she had suppressed for years while writing the book.
Gaines said the book has served as a channel for her to connect with her past and will encourage others to do the same and make a meaningful change which involves being open to address and share the good and ugly parts and not only the facade we so much love to present to the world.
She further revealed how the laundry room may have been pivotal to the book's production as she calls it her happy place where she feels most free to express herself and gather those thoughts.
The Fixer Upper star shares five children with her husband, Chip Gaines, and they have been married for almost two decades.
In quick advice to the children, she tells them to learn the importance of loving their current life and not be in a hurry to grow up as she did as a little girl. She also expressed her desire to be more childlike in her thinking.
