Watching "Fixer Upper" stars Chip and Joanna Gaines blaze a trail on home design and television, it's hard to imagine that one of them used to be a victim of bullying.
However, Joanna Gaines, who is now pregnant with her fifth child with husband Chip, told Darling magazine that she was singled out as a young girl because of the color of her skin and the shape of her eyes.
"I don't think confidence has ever really been one of those things that came naturally for me. If people thought I was confident, it was really just the way I masked my insecurity, because I didn't want people to really get to know the real me," she said.
"If you haven't heard my story, my mom is full Korean and my dad is Caucasian. Kids in kindergarten would make fun of me for being Asian and when you're that age you don't know really how to process that; the way you take that is, 'Who I am isn't good enough.'"
Her personal insecurities built up throughout the years, and things only changed for her when she realized that it is her life's purpose to help others dealing with their own insecurities.
"So while I was in New York I really felt like God was telling me that I would be able to help women who weren't confident, who were looking for guidance or who were lonely. And so I knew that from that place of pain there was going to be a place to reach others, because I had actually lived in that place; I had felt that pain myself," she said.
Now that she is a mother, with a successful business and reality show to boot, she always tells her children to be kind and to reach out to those who are being excluded. "I now, as a 37-year-old woman, for one am thankful for that pain and confusion and loneliness [in high school] because I feel like that gives me a heart for what it is I do now," she said.
A lot of fans were actually disappointed that the Christian couple quit "Fixer Upper" after only five seasons. But during an earlier interview with Success magazine, Chip revealed that their decision was based on their desire to prioritize their marriage and family. "We want to make sure that we're here for our family during really crucial, pivotal points in its journey," he said.
"The idea of leaving the show at the height of its popularity is probably pretty risky, almost irrational-sounding," he continued. "Jo and I just realized in our hearts that as much as we love 'Fixer Upper,' as much as we love the honor that we have felt with this show basically introducing us to the country, if not the world, we want to make sure that we're here."
