Gwyneth Paltrow was among the first celebrities to create their own blogs for the purposes of sharing advice and new products related to women’s health and beauty, offering up everything from new skin creams, to recipes for healthier meals. Even for those with little else to do, it is a massive undertaking and Ms. Paltrow soon learned just how time consuming and challenging it could be to keep things current and relevant. Goop started out as a simple blog for Gwyneth, but soon evolved into an online business, providing organic beauty products and more. Now, not too long after she unveiled plans to set acting aside to more fully concentrate on running her Goop company, Ms. Paltrow shares her regrets for ever getting involved with the blogging craze.
Gwyneth Paltrow Doesn’t Even Know Why She Started Goop
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In talking about Goop, Gwyneth looks back on the start of it all and shares with NZ Herald that the project was born from her willingness to help her friends. She took pride in the fact that she was the one everyone would come to for advice and Gwyneth says that ultimately led to her believing a broader audience might benefit from her knowledge and opinions.
“I’ve always been that person for my friends, where they ask me, ‘I have a guy coming over for dinner. How do I roast a chicken?’… So I had all of this information, and it was originally going to be a tiny database for my friends so they would stop f—ing calling me,” said Ms. Paltrow.
As the blogging craze evolved, so did Paltrow’s idea for Goop, and before long, she was devoting larger portions of her life to running Goop. At first, it was enough to know her friends, family, and fans were benefiting from the information found on Goop, but, over time, Paltrow says running the website became less of a joy and more of a chore.
“There have been many times over the years that I’ve been doing that, that I’m like, ‘Why am I doing this? This is totally excruciating and unrewarding, and really painful, and everyone hates it and hates me.’”
Gwyneth Isn’t Bitter Over Goop’s Haters, But…
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Ms. Paltrow does have a legitimate gripe, one which Daily Mail found her sharing on Lena Dunham’s own Lenny Letter website. The actress-turned-businesswoman expressed concerns over the way she, as a woman, was treated differently than the male actors, many of whom have gone on to achieve success as entrepreneurs. One specific example cited by Paltrow was Ashton Kutcher, who has graduated from playing comedic losers on screen to becoming a big winner with a chain of restaurants, investments in tech companies like Skype, Foursquare, and Airbnb, all in addition to running his A Plus website.
Gwyneth says that, while Kutcher has been encouraged and supported, her Goop website has been ridiculed, and she, herself, has been treated unfairly.
“Everybody wants you in the caricature of you if you’re a woman,” says Ms. Paltrow. “You’re supposed to be this and I’m supposed to be that. If you start to cast that off, it makes people very uncomfortable, especially if they’re projecting a lot onto you and they identify with you.”
While Gwyneth clarifies that she’s not speaking of all men, she says most men feel threatened by the idea of a woman entering the business world and doing well with her endeavors. The actress recalls sending out her first newsletter, a brief, unassuming publication mailed out from her kitchen, because it created such a huge knee-jerk reaction in the media that it resulted in a lengthy New York Times op-ed.
“The response was totally bananas,” recalls Gwyneth Paltrow.
Through the complications and challenges, Gwyneth still sticks with Goop and admits she does still enjoy the work she does with the website and the company that has grown from that little blog. Paltrow is proud of all she has achieved with Goop and looks forward to much more success in the future.
[Featured Image by Cindy Ord/Getty Images]
