Joanna Gaines is creating spaces for everyone, and when she says everyone, she means it.
Over the past 20 years that she has been building her home renovation empire, and especially since becoming an HGTV darling, the Magnolia founder has found national, if not global, stardom.
However, being in the spotlight hasn't come without its fair share of ups and downs and backlash, and though she has typically shied away from addressing it, she's now speaking out on why it's so important to her to clarify some misconceptions about her.
For a new feature on Architectural Digest, Joanna, who runs her business with husband Chip Gaines, opened up about the hate she has received online for her perceived political inclinations; though she has never disclosed her family's political affiliations, people have made assumptions, and criticized her from that, nonetheless.
"I get emotional about it," she said, before noting that she grew up in Kansas and later Texas, in the 1980s, being half-Korean, as the daughter of a Korean immigrant, her mother Nan Stevens.
She continued: "You’re talking about a little girl who, for years, tried to hide pieces of herself, because I felt as though I wasn't included, or good enough. I looked like what I was: Korean — half Korean."
"Now that I'm older, I realize the things I was picked on for are what I’m the most proud of," she then noted, adding: "Having to work out of that [headspace], even in my 40s, I am so empathetic towards people who feel different and who look different."
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"I understand how much harder you have to work to just show up and say, 'Well, I'm good! It's me!" she maintained. "And so, when I hear people labeling me as someone who wouldn't like someone because of this or that reason, it couldn't be further from who I am as a human being."
"We believe everyone has a seat at the table. I don't say that to mean: 'Well, but not you, and you, and a little bit of you.' We wouldn't put that statement on our website, in our restaurants, on our books because we kind of mean it. We truly mean everyone has a seat at the table," she emphasized.
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Elsewhere in the interview, Joanna also opened up about the feelings of imposter she felt coming up in her industry with no formal education in design and architecture.
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"I was a local boutique owner, and then I was doing design and renovations with Chip for years. And then, you get noticed by a production company — you're naive, you think: 'Maybe some people in Waco will see the show,'" she first said.
She then added: "And then you realize, six months later, 'Oh, my gosh, this is national. People are watching our work.' I remember, in that moment, thinking, 'I'm going to get found out. Every 'real' designer is going to be, like, 'Why is she on TV? She's not real.' I had to have a real come-to-Jesus moment with myself: If I want to stay true to what the client wants, their story, this is what design is for me."