“I couldn’t go back to what I was doing before and be authentic.”
Back in 2008, Jessica Alba was at the top of her career when she decided she wanted to take a step back from acting.
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The break coincided with the birth of her oldest daughter Honor, but Jessica has revealed that the decision was about more than that.
“My motivation was not like, ‘Am I ever going to get hired again?’ Frankly, I was at the top of my career,” Jessica recently told Romper.
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Instead, it had do with how motherhood made her think about the health and wellness of her family, which “felt so real when I became a mom for the first time.”
“My mother had cancer at a really young age, in her early 20s. I grew up with chronic illness. I had five surgeries before I was 11 years old. I had chronic allergies, and I was hospitalized a lot as a child,” Jessica explained.
She continued, “I had this real moment of, I want to live, and thrive, and spend as much time with this little person that I’m bringing into the world as possible and stay. So, my health matters. I want this little person to be healthy.”
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“I couldn’t go back to what I was doing before and be authentic. I just couldn’t. I didn’t care about it the same way. It was something bigger. I felt like if I was going to have this platform, then what can I do with it that could be meaningful and make a difference?” Jessica noted.
That “something bigger” eventually turned into The Honest Company, which aims to provide affordable, eco-friendly family fare from baby products to beauty.
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Jessica added that creating the company was an arduous process and made her question her choice along the way.
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“Building a brand and building a business is fucking impossible. And to be good at it and for it to thrive and scale, it is really hard. If anything, I was like, ‘Do I really want to do this?’ It took me three-and-a-half years just to find partners to even join me, and I got lots of rejection,” Jessica explained.
And although it hasn’t been an easy path, it sounds like it was completely worth it!
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