Joanna Gaines Gets Real About How Social Media Has Hurt Her Family

Joanna Gaines has recently opened up about how social media has hurt her and her family. The Fixer Upper: Welcome Home star is no stranger to seeing completely untrue and nasty headlines about her or her family in the media. Social media just amplifies what people have to say tenfold.

In an essay called “A Time for Forward Motion” in the fall issue of Magnolia Journal, Joanna opens up about what it’s like to deal with this kind of thing and how it has affected her whole family.

Joanna Gaines opens up about how social media has hurt her family

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“Some years ago, Chip and I found ourselves in a world we’d never known with no instructions or road map,” she writes of herself and husband, Chip. “When our show took off, we couldn’t have imagined all the beauty and blessings that would follow for us and for our family — all of which we’re continually grateful for.”

“But it didn’t take us long to realize that being a part of this new reality also meant being a part of the news cycle. Stories get written about us, about our family, our plans, our supposed beliefs and politics. We’ve been through it enough now to know that it’s just part of the territory, and a lot of times it’s so unbelievable we can’t help but laugh.”

Chip is usually better with ignoring the comments

She notes that Chip is typically a lot better at being able to ignore the hate or false comments. “Then there’s me, the one who wants to right the wrong. Who wants to call foul because I thought we all knew to play fair,” she shares, noting that it’s something she’s working on getting better with.

In a previous interview with The Hollywood Reporter, they opened up in detail about some of the accusations that have been thrown at them. “The accusations that get thrown at you, like ‘You’re a racist or ‘You don’t like people in the LGBTQ community’ — that’s the stuff that really eats my lunch, because it’s so far from who we really are,” Joanna says. “That’s the stuff that keeps me up.”

Chip echoed this, saying, “As an American white male, it’s hard to be perfectly diverse… In our own company, we’ve got nearly 700 employees, and one of our biggest passions is making this group represent all people.”