The 'Age of Adaline' actress decides to pull the plug on her lifestyle website because 'it's not making a difference in people's lives.'
- Oct 1, 2015
AceShowbiz - Blake Lively is shutting down her lifestyle website, Preserve, on October 9 after launching it only a year ago. The 28-year-old blonde beauty who gave birth to her first child with husband Ryan Reynolds in December admits failure in a new interview with Vogue.
"We have an incredible team of people who do beautiful work, but we launched the site before it was ready, and it never caught up to its original mission: It's not making a difference in people's lives, whether superficially or in a meaningful way," so she explains.
"And that's the whole reason I started this company, not just to fluff myself, like, 'I'm a celebrity! People will care what I have to say!' It was so never meant to be that, and that kind of became the crutch because it was already up and already running, and it's hard to build a brand when you're running full steam ahead - how do you catch up?"
However, closing Preserve means a new beginning for her to rebuild the brand. "It's very exciting and it's also incredibly scary," she says. "I never thought I would have the bravery to actually do that, to take the site dark and to say, 'You know what? I haven't created something that is as true and impactful as I know it can and will be. And I'm not going to continue to chase my tail and continue to put a product out there that we, as a team, are not proud of.' "
Lively is aware of the impending backlash and is prepared for it. "Failure! Folly! We knew she couldn't do this, too!" she jokes. "I know what it'll look like, what I'm facing publicly, that people are just going to have a heyday with this. But it's so much worse to continue to put something out there - to ask my team to put something out there - that isn't the best we can do. I'm going to take this hit, and the only way I can prove all the negative reactions wrong is to come back with a plan that will rock people."
She continues, "And I have that plan. And I'm so excited about it, and that's what gave me the courage to do this, to say, 'You know what, I'm going to give myself one more shot at this, and I really have to do it as well as I can do it this time.' And that is the only thing that will impact people. And that's what I'm doing. And I'm totally terrified out of my mind!"
In the meantime, to brush off the haters, "I've asked my assistant to just play 'Shake It Off' on a loop," she laughs. "It feels really good to listen to it on a loop!"
