Shawn Johnson East Reveals How Hard Moments in Marriage, Motherhood Inspired Podcast, ‘Couple Things’
Olympic gold medalist Shawn Johnson East made a name for herself as a young gymnast, but these days, the 32-year-old has added wife, mother of three, author and much, much more to her resume. She and her husband Andrew East co-host a hit podcast, Couple Things with Shawn and Andrew, run a media company and have their hands full as parents, but that’s just a small fraction of their day-to-day.
Ever mindful of giving back, Shawn and Andrew have also launched Moment Makers Foundation, a charitable organization “geared to help find, foster and fuel meaningful, life-changing moments for families.” And for the Olympics this year, Moment Makers provided $250,000 in grants to support parents competing in the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic games to assist with their child care.
Shawn Johnson East Talks Life After Olympics and Finding Her Confidence
“I literally had a dream one night that I was competing in the Olympics this year and I panicked in my dream because I couldn’t figure out how to get all my babies over there to Paris,” she told Woman’s World in a sit-down for our latest cover (buy your issue here!)
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“I woke up and was like, ‘Andrew, what do parents do who are competing?’ You would have to worry about nannies and the expenses for that. Where do they stay? They can’t stay in the Olympic Village. Are you splitting your family up? There are all of these logistics and then I had this idea through Moment Makers. I'd love to be able to give grants to parents to help alleviate that. It felt like such a no-brainer to me,” she says.
Take a Walk Down Memory Lane to Shawn Johnson’s Debut Olympic Games and Her Stellar Beam Performance
Shawn Johson and Andrew East on finding their social media niche
Shawn is very intentional in using her platform to help others, but she admits it took a while for her and her husband to decide how to best serve. “We fell into this world of social media and YouTube and kind of have done everything you could imagine,” Shawn says with a grin.
“At one point, we were doing slime videos because it made money and it was what the cool kids were doing. After probably our tenth slime video, I remember asking my husband like, ‘What are we doing? We’re almost 30 years old making slime on YouTube for what reason?’”
@shawnjohnson/Instagram
It was around that time that Shawn and Andrew took a step back. “I asked, ‘We’ve been given this platform for God knows what reason. I don’t know why people follow us, but it’s amazing and it is a blessing. What can we do with it?’”
Shawn says she and Andrew have a passion for marriage and for family, so they decided to refocus their efforts on what meant the most to them. “We ended up showing our life in a humorous, uplifting, wholesome way,” Shawn says. “There’s no profanity. It’s not polarizing. It’s just kind of the middle of the road, dumb humor, but relatable.”
“We always say, at the end of the day if my kids or your kids or someone on the internet happens to watch our YouTube videos or our dumb Instagrams over something that is controversial or crude or profane, then we’ve done our job,” Shawn continues. “It’s just trying to make families a little bit better, bring family back to the forefront.”
Shawn Johnson East talks inspiration for podcast Couple Things
As a mom, Shawn is always mindful that being a parent is a gift, but also feels the weight of responsibility. “I just feel this pressure to lead by example,” she explains. “I don’t want to be one of those parents that says, ‘You need to do it this way,’ but I’m doing it another, so with obstacles, I always ask myself, ‘What would I want my kids to do?’ It seems to make it pretty simple when I ask that question.”
Shawn says she and her husband openly share their parenting and marital issues on their podcast, Couple Things. “We love it and it’s actually made No. 1 on the podcast charts a couple of times which has been really cool. I never thought that would happen,” Shawn smiles.
“It’s all about couples and the things couples go through. We started it because I got so frustrated seeing divorce headlines and headlines about breakups,” Shawn admits. “I got tired of people talking about how if relationships get hard you must not be meant for each other. So we wanted to start a podcast that shows the hard side of relationships and that you can get through it.”
@shawnjohnson/Instagram
Shawn feels community is crucial to successful couplehood. “Surround yourself with a community that can tell you the truth and that can help pick you back up,” she says. “I’m a ‘learn the hard way’ type of girl. I’m very stubborn and have to do everything my own way and then when I learn that it doesn’t work very well by yourself. I learned that a community is the best part.”
For Shawn’s full interview pick up the latest issue of Woman’s World in you local grocery store now, or order it online here!
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