Julianne Hough Talks Healing, Her New Book ‘Everything We Knew,’ Music & More (EXCLUSIVE)
Whether performing a complicated dance routine, writing a song or tackling a challenging film role, it’s obvious Julianne Hough is always teeming with creative energy. These days, the Emmy nominated, two-time Dancing with the Stars champ and former judge is involved in a variety of projects that find her expanding her career in new and exciting ways. She’s launched Kinrgy, which includes dance cardio, fitness, mindful movement, meditations and sound healing. On top of that, Julianne and her brother Derek Hough recently announced their partnership with DanceOne to bring a ballroom dance convention and competition tour across the globe. She’s also co-written a novel, Everything We Never Knew, with Ellen Goodlett.
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“I’ve been asked to write a book almost since I can remember because my upbringing and my life have taken so many different twists and turns over the years,” she tells FIRST for Women as our cover girl (Get your copy here!).
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“They suggested a memoir and I was like, ‘You know what? I’m not done yet.’ That was my thought process,” Julianne says. “I don’t want to tell my story yet because I’m not even close to being done. But there was a very specific chapter of my life that happened in the last six years that really transformed my life from the inside out.”
Though she wanted to share the experiences she’s been through, she was hesitant to be totally revealing. “I didn’t want to really share my personal details, so I thought, ‘How can I share this experience I’ve gone through in a universal way?’” she says.
“If I can create a story that’s fictionalized — or I say ‘factional’ — and has a lot of personal details, but from a fiction lens that might be a little easier to digest, especially when it comes to transformation or self-discovery, then that’s maybe how I should tell my story,”Julianne reveals. “So that’s how it came about.”
Julianne Hough talks creativity
The 36-year-old is on a mission to use her talents to make the world a better place. “I’m just a very creative person when I write songs, when I choreograph, when I think of anything I think of storytelling,” Julianne shares.
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“I see movies and music videos before I even know what I want to say,” she adds. “So, I created this entire world and this picture before I even put words to the page.”
In bringing the book to life, she found the perfect creative partner in Ellen Goodlett. “Ellen is an amazing writer. She writes fiction novels, and she has much more of a vantage point of that world which has all sorts of supernatural, fantasy and mystical elements to it. I knew I wanted to do a more heightened version of what my experience was so I wanted to incorporate somebody who knew those worlds pretty well. I’m not a novelist. That was never my career path, but I knew exactly what I wanted to write and see. I definitely needed an expert to come in and help me articulate it.”
What is Julianne Hough’s book about?
The book is about a woman named Lexi who is able to feel other people’s emotions and see their personal memories. “One of the biggest character traits of Lexi is that she is an A type personality. She’s very positive,” Julianne explains.
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“In her life, the character has the perfect husband, the perfect house, the perfect job she’s been working so hard for,” Julianne says. “Eventually something shifts and this whole world that she put into place really starts unraveling because she’s finding more truth to who she is through these heightened mystical experiences.”
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Julianne also reveals that Lexi is very much her, and it is very much what happened in her experience.
“My whole world kind of unraveled when I started my healing journey,” she says. “As much as that is scary, coming to the most authentic version of myself is the greatest decision I ever made and this is what we’re going to experience through Lexi, what’s going to happen with her and how she’s going to find her most authentic self.”
Julianne is excited about the book and hopeful that people will enjoy it. “It is an adventure,” she smiles. “It’s a journey of self-discovery and there’s so many fantastic visuals that activate themselves through this book. I hope that people are just entertained and enjoy it.”
The accomplished dancer and actress has gone through a lot in recent years, and the healing she’s done in her real-life parallels that of Lexi. Hough finalized her divorce from Brooks Laich in 2022 after they began dating in 2013.
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Prior to that, much of the blonde beauty’s personal life had been on display, including her relationship with Ryan Seacrest, who she began dating in 2010. With that in mind, her strength over the last decade is unparalleled, and channeling her healing into a medium that can help others on their own healing journey is something to admire.
Julianne Hough dishes on new music inspired by the book
These days, Julianne is also diving back into music and has written new songs connected to her book. “I actually wrote music around it and I’m going to release it with the book,” she enthuses.
“My whole thing is people experience things in different ways. Some people want to read. Some people want to listen. Some people want to move their bodies with dance. So this book, the music, Kinrgy, it’s all saying the same thing and encouraging people to look within in a way that isn’t scary,” Julianne explains.
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“It’s more the joy of transformation versus the fear of change and I’m trying to use my art as a way to just put goodness out into the world and whatever people gravitate towards and pick up, hopefully it enriches their life. That’s my hope.”
Read Julianne Hough’s full interview and find out more about the new book in the issue of FIRST for Women on sale at your local grocery store or online here!
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