- Content: Joanna Gaines Is Welcoming Change: ‘I Feel Like I’m Stepping Into A New Season’
By Movieguide® Contributor
Joanna Gaines has been pretty busy over the last few years. The business owner and mom recently shared her desire to slow down as she steps “into a new season” of her life.
“I sense [a change] coming,” Gaines said while appearing on the TODAY SHOW. “I don’t even know what it is, but I do feel like my heart — like instinctively, I know I’ve got to prepare.”
“At 44, I feel like I’m stepping into a new season,” she continued. “Like, I have half my life, it’s been great, but now I want to really be intentional about what I carry with me as I move forward.”
She and her husband Chip Gaines have spent the last two decades turning their Magnolia Market into a media and retail empire. Now, Gaines is taking stock of her life and figuring out her next move.
“Right now, I’m wrestling with my role in our business,” she explained. “Since 2003, Chip and I have given Magnolia every inch of us, and because it has become so intertwined with who we are, sometimes it’s difficult to make out where Magnolia ends and where we begin.”
Gaines continued, “All these years I’ve thought, when Magnolia fails, I fail, and when I fail, it follows. In some ways, that reality has lessened what I’m willing to share with the world — the parts of me that want to learn what else I could grow to be, or, God forbid, the parts of me that aren’t so pretty.”
For fans who are worried Magnolia is coming to an end, never fear! When asked if she thought the Magnolia brand would continue, Gaines was quick to respond.
“Yes, I do,” she shared. “In a lot of ways, I feel like it’s just getting started. She’s — I say ‘she’ — 20 years old, but there’s still so much life. So I’m excited about what she — it — will grow into.”
Gaines has been publicly discussing her changing outlook on life recently. Movieguide® previously reported:
As Joanna Gaines has gotten older, she’s been reflecting on her life and her mindset as a mother.
Gaines shared that previously, she thought, “I’m the mom, I should have the answers.” However, now she understands the importance of being “vulnerable.”
“The older I’ve gotten, I’ve realized the more humanity these kids can see in me, the more we’re going to connect,” Gaines explained.
She continued, “I want them to see the highs and lows, so when they’re feeling anxieties about school or relationships, they know it’s a safe place for them to come to me.”
This lesson comes just in time for a pretty big life change for the Gaines family. Drake, their eldest child, is getting ready to head off to college.
“When [Drake] was Crew’s age, people would look at me and say, ‘Oh, you better hold on tight. It goes by fast,’” she shared. “Now, being a mother of a 4-year-old and an almost 18-year-old, it’s a constant reminder to not take these moments for granted.”
Gaines has gotten comfortable with the idea that she might not always have all the answers, and says that her children are her biggest cheerleaders.
“They’re encouraging me as I walk out the door like, ‘Mom, you’ve got this. Just be yourself, have fun,’” she laughed. “Sometimes I feel like they’re the parents.”
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