You probably know Joanna Gaines as America's favorite fixer upper.
Along with her husband Chip, the couple built a massively successful home renovation empire.
But the road to Magnolia-branded domination wasn't always a simple one.
Here's where Jo started, and where she's headed next!
Joanna was born in Kansas as the middle child of her American father and Korean mother. And
her formative years shaped her inclusive mindset as an adult. As she told The Hollywood Reporter,
"Growing up as half-Asian, half-Caucasian, I get what that feels like to not be accepted
and to not be loved. That's the last thing I want anyone to ever feel."
Because of those struggles as a child, Jo developed a crippling shyness that lasted
throughout her time in school. When the family moved to Texas just as she started high school,
her social anxiety got even worse. As she told Darling Magazine,
during one lunch period, she ran away from the cafeteria completely, adding,
"My fear and my insecurities just took over
and I felt like I'd way rather sit in the [bathroom] stall than get rejected."
Gaines looked back on her childhood experience and offered some advice, tweeting in 2020,
"The older I get, the more I realize how much time I spent believing the lie that who I was,
wasn’t good enough. I find myself fighting to get all of that time back - all of the
moments I wasted, hiding who I was by trying to be something I wasn’t."
Joanna had been working at her dad's auto shop for almost a decade
when Chip happened to stop by as a customer, in 2001. At the time, he owned multiple businesses,
and Joanna had plans to take over her dad's store. But once the pair met,
their journey changed completely. Recalling their first date, Jo told Today,
"I just love that [Chip] knew how to draw me out. I'm more introverted."
"I remember when I touched your leg and you were like, 'Don't touch me,'
and I was like, 'This is gonna work.'"
Chip also planned to stick around their hometown of Waco, Texas, which was another plus for Jo. The
couple proved to be perfect for each other. As Joanna shared with Baylor University,
"He knew that I had this whole thing of businesses that I wanted to start, but he
also knew I was never going to just take the risk and start them. And he really encouraged me to step out and make one of those dreams happen."
Chip and Jo got married in 2003. And soon after,
they embarked upon their very-first fixer-upper. As Jo shared with Today,
Chip had already started flipping houses while they were dating. She recalled,
"Our first fixer-upper […] we really learned how to work together.
I learned what not to do from a design standpoint."
Of course, despite the mistakes they made along the way,
Jo realized that she enjoyed interior design. The couple continued buying,
renovating, and selling houses in the years that followed. And as Jo explained,
this helped her to learn to craft beautiful homes on a small budget — which eventually became the
basis for a whole career. Jo looked back on the house that started it all, posting to Instagram,
"To this day, if you ask us what our favorite house we ever lived in [was], we both go back to this little white 800 sq ft home."
Jo caught the design bug after that
debut fixer-upper. And in 2003, the couple opened their very-first shop in Waco, Texas;
Magnolia. The store helped Jo develop her aesthetic, and as she shared with House Beautiful,
"In that store, I developed and sharpened my design style and skills, grew as a business owner,
and gained much needed confidence in Magnolia Market and myself."
"We opened that little shop and I was terrified. But it was one of the best days of my life."
Joanna explained to Today that she would often be the only person working in the store,
and she then had to help customers with home design advice. She admitted,
"I would literally have no idea. And so I would start making stuff up."
Shortly after launching their business, Chip and Jo also started their family. As they told The
Hollywood Reporter, their four oldest kids - Drake, Ella, Duke, and Emmie - were born
fairly early into their marriage. Then, in 2018, they welcomed number five, with Crew. For Jo,
becoming a mother meant changing up her priorities. As she told Baylor University,
"I really felt like God was saying,
'I want you home, I want you raising these babies at home at this age.'"
So, she took a step back from her business and focused on parenting. As she told Southern Living,
"Being a mom is at the core of who I am. It's my top priority."
"Many times, I just try to think, 'What would,
y'know, how'd my mom do this?' She was tired, she worked, we were her first priority."
In terms of raising her kids, Jo took inspiration from her own parents.
She learned from her mom, for instance, that a clean, organized home feels more
calm. She also copied her mom's idea of having a private room in the house,
in order to be able to take a timeout for herself when she needs it.
"It's the laundry room. That's the room you'll find me in. That's where…that's like my little nook."
Everything changed for Chip and Jo when HGTV
developed their now-famous home renovation show, "Fixer Upper." The network approached the couple
and just happened to capture an argument about a houseboat, which ultimately won them their series.
As Jo told The Wall Street Journal, it was her response to Chip's rash decision to
buy a houseboat that caught the network's attention. After getting a little angry,
she then started drawing up plans to transform it. The next thing they knew,
they were international stars. According to The Wrap, their show drew over 4 million viewers,
making it the most-popular home renovation show on HGTV.
"You ready?"
"Oh, I can't do this!"
"You got it!"
The couple don't even own a TV, so they were completely unprepared
for the level of stardom the show brought them. Jo revealed to Today,
"I don't think we ever knew it was going to be this national thing. Never would we have thought it would be anywhere close to this."
Despite the huge success of "Fixer Upper,"
Chip and Jo decided to wrap the HGTV version of the show after Season Six.
They eventually came back to TV with their own network, but, as Jo told Oprah in 2021,
"When you're filming for four or five years,
you begin to lose the 'why.' We just lost steam - we lost the purpose in it."
"It was no big deal for her, but for me, to become famous, I lost a part of myself."
Chip went on to explain that he and Jo both agreed that a 12-month hiatus was exactly what
they needed. Another reason for taking a break was that the couple wanted to focus on family.
As Chip explained to People, the kids were experiencing the negative effects of reality TV.
Apparently, they even started to ask why their parents were never at home.
So, the couple made some beneficial changes.
After taking a step back from their show, Chip and Jo took on a new type of business venture - a
hotel in Waco, Texas. The couple purchased an old building that was once a shrine and transformed
it completely. But Jo admitted she was hesitant to take on the huge project at first. She told Today,
"I really was like, 'It scares me.' [But then] I could see it, I could see its history."
"Y'all. We're gonna have a hotel in downtown Waco, Texas."
"Whaaat?"
"Just a few short blocks from the silos."
In a press release, the couple announced that they would be partnering with Adventurous
Journeys for the build, with plans to open their doors in 2021. They shared,
"Home is a feeling, created by and for the people you love and share your life with. That is our
dream for this hotel - that it would serve as an extension of the way we feel about our own home
and all it represents to us." Many fans likely think of Joanna
Gaines as one of the most beautiful faces on TV. But in 2018, she opened up about how her
understanding of beauty had shifted as she aged. She explained to Darling Magazine,
"As I am getting older the idea of beauty is very different for me. Yes, I am getting gray
hairs and wrinkles, but I feel more beautiful now because I know I have a great purpose."
"You were like a flower
in desperate need of water. You blossomed in a way that was really fascinating to watch."
For Joanna, having the opportunity to care for her family and bring joy to her clients is what makes
her feel beautiful from the inside out. By raising her kids, sharing adventures with Chip, and
tending to her home, she experiences true beauty, compared to the times she obsessed over her looks.
When she was younger, Jo considered beauty to be completely superficial - and she didn't always see
herself as being pretty. But with age, she has begun to appreciate all the beauty in the world
around her, with the perspective of someone with a little more life experience. She said,
"Beauty comes in so many different forms,
whether it’s a delicate rose in the garden or the tender touch of a child. […] Deal with
the issues of your heart and allow your beauty to be defined from a whole place from within.
Once a woman finds that kind of beautiful, […] I feel like she can really change the world."
With multiple successful businesses and ongoing TV ventures, Joanna Gaines is always on the go.
But as she explained in Magnolia Journal in 2021, one particular moment helped her to recognize the
importance of slowing down and appreciating the simple things in life. Before the pandemic hit,
Jo was having dinner with her family at her dad's house. And when he asked if she wanted to watch
the sunset with him, she declined, saying that she was busy and had to put the kids to bed.
As lockdown extended from weeks to months, Jo realized that she needed to start appreciating
these moments when they came, instead of waiting for another chance in the future.
"We have to really savor these moments."
Once she finally got to spend time with her dad again, she wrote,
"It didn't take me long to regret that moment. No longer would I measure my
life based on what I achieved in a week, a day, or an hour. Now,
it is time spent in moments like the one I shared with my dad that I hope define my lifetime."
"You're trying to blind me!"
"No. I was hoping that the Lord speaks to you through this ray of light."
Longtime fans of the Gaines family know that their religious faith is an integral part of
their lives. And Jo believes that God has spoken to her at pivotal moments throughout her life
and helped her to make the right choices along the way. She recalled several key moments when
this occurred, telling Baylor University that as a kid, she once heard God say;
"Joanna, I have a calling for you. You're going to have a platform one day."
Of course, at the time, she didn't fully understand the message. The next time she
heard God was when she made the decision to step back from her first store, to raise her kids.
He made her a promise that if she pressed pause, she'd eventually come back stronger than
ever. She then heard God's voice again just after starting "Fixer Upper." Apparently, he told her it
was time for her to reopen Magnolia. So she did, and the store became a huge success. She said,
"I can look back now on the pattern of my life and really believe God has a purpose for me."
"OK. You ready?"
"Let's do this."
"And action!"
Despite all of her successes, it seems like Jo is just getting started. In 2018,
on "The Tonight Show," she and Chip announced their plans to launch their own
home and lifestyle brand on the Magnolia Network. And as Jo told Fast Company, the plan was to fill
the brand with content from real-life people who hope to inspire others. She explained,
"It's what they're doing in real life that drew us to their story."
The pair has chosen to feature people who are out there living their ultimate dreams - those
who are passionate, unpretentious, natural, and of course, aspirational. Chip said,
"The fact that we have people [on the network] who see things from different perspectives,
or have lifestyles that are different from our own, is going to make the
overall experience much richer and much better."
Initially slated for 2020, the network launch was pushed back to 2021 - but then bumped to 2022,
according to People. Still, the app launched in July 2021,
with plenty of Magnolia Network shows, recipes and more - all available to fans.
One thing's for sure, if you thought Joanna Gaines was slowing down any time soon,
you ain't seen nothin' yet!
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