Joanna Gaines Says She Was Bullied for Being Half Asian, but God Used Her Insecurity to Help Other Women
Joanna Gaines of the popular HGTV show "Fixer Upper" has opened up about being bullied at school as a child because she's half Asian, and said God used that experience to lead her to help other women in pain.
Gaines, who recently revealed that she is in her fifth pregnancy with husband, Chip, told Darling magazine in an article published Monday that one of her earliest challenges was dealing with being bullied at school.
"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.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
"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.'"
The reality show star let that "build up throughout the years," including in her sophomore year at a new high school in Texas, where she said her "fear and insecurities" sometimes got the best of her.
Her family moved towns again to a smaller school in Waco, where it was easier for her to make friends, but in her last semester in college she moved to New York and had to face the challenges that came with living in a big city again.
Gaines said she wrestled for six months with identity issues before she discovered that her purpose was to help other people dealing with insecurity.
"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.
She added that nowadays she always tells her children to reach out to others on the playground who look excluded and try to be their friend.
"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.
Later on in the interview she positioned that "every woman has places of shame or pain that we assume are best to just keep quiet about."
"I feel like women need to be more vulnerable and share their stories with one another. It's in those hidden places of the past where there are treasures and gifts we need to share with others. Our stories are powerful and in those raw and dark places there is light ... and that light needs to shine," Gaines said.
The Gaines, whose "Fixer Upper" series has entered its final season, have taken on a number of new projects, including moving toward opening their first restaurant.
The Christian couple have been praised by some notable evangelical leaders, such as Pastor Greg Laurie of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, California. Laurie said in February 2015 that their home renovation skills work as an example of how God redeems and restores people.
"It's really a great show. They go to homes and they find young couples [with] beat up homes, and then they will get a budget together and have the couple pick the home, and figure out what they want to do," Laurie noted at the time.
"They will take the couple to the home, and they will have this giant blown up photo of how the home used to look, and then they will pull the panels and reveal the new home — and you can hardly believe it's the same place," he said, adding, "God can take that which is outdated and antiquated and make it fresh and new."
