Blake Lively Admits That She is No Beyonce
Photography by Mario Testino for “Allure.”
Blake Lively’s already made a public play at Martha Stewart’s lifestyle guru gig with the launch of her website Preserve.us (.com is so 2000 and late). Now she’s gunning for Sheryl Sandberg’s female empowerment title too. “Most of the things I do are all-consuming, but somehow I find a way to do it all. It’s not having it all; it’s about doing it all,” Lively tells Allure in their May cover story, shot by Mario Testino. “But it’s dangerous to dilute that to a catchphrase.”
Like the advice-slinging Facebook executive, she’s not lost for words when it comes to explaining what “having it all” actually means today—and she really doesn’t want anyone to misunderstand her or think she’s belittling the masses (she needs the lesser people to buy ponchos from Preserve after all!). “Having it all could be having a happy, healthy family, and you could be a mom who stays at home, and that is the most admirable thing you could do. Or it could be having a profession that you really believe in, and not having a family, and doing what fulfills you.” But before you go and rip the 27-year-old to shreds on Twitter for talking down to the peasants from her ivory tower, she adds that it’s risky to reduce anyone’s life to a sound bite. “If it’s not a part of a conversation with someone face-to-face, those bites are why women tear each other apart or why the media will tear people apart.”
Between her new film—Lively stars in the upcoming movie Age of Adaline, playing a woman who doesn’t age for decades—and her new website, which is one part GOOP, one part Anna Wintour, one part pretentious, she’s one step closer to the coveted “having it all” status she so craves. “It taps into so many of my own passions, but it also is a business that I can control. If I can be successful at this, I have security for my family and my babies,” she said, already assuming that she’s going to pop more out. “I’m in a profession, acting, where it’s really for-hire—I offer a service that people hire out. I love it, but it’s not something I can control.”
At the end of the day, Lively proves she’s human by comparing herself to Beyonce. On the topic of pregnancy announcements—the actress posted a picture of her bump to Preserve, she says, “That was my way of owning that moment. I can’t be someone like Beyoncé…” who famously forewent a traditional written notice and bared her baby bump onstage. “But it was important for us. It was a struggle, because we want to keep our privacy, but we also don’t want our lives to be exploited by other people. So we did it simply; it was a quiet way, an elegant way.”
Which is exactly the way we imagine Lively strives to do everything.
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