“I’m so sorry!” Jessica Alba is late – and
looks frazzled. “My washing machine exploded and my 3-year-old fell down the
stairs wearing my high heels. We had to have a chat about why we don’t wear
heels on the stairs.”
It’s a sun-soaked Santa Monica, California,
day at the offices of the Honest Company (honest.com), Jessica’s latest
project: a nostalgic monthly diaper and baby wipe delivery service that’s
anything but old-school. The plant-based disposable diapers and other products
contain no toxic chemicals – and they’re cute with a capital C! “I don’t know
why people think natural products have to be ugly,” says the star of both
Fantastic Four and Spy Kids.
As I listen to her talk about baby gear,
I’m reminded that she and her husband, producer Cash Warren, greeted their
second daughter Haven a mere five months earlier. For a new mom, Jessica looks,
well, a-ma-zing. Her hair is pulled back into a high bun, showing off the
chiseled cheekbones and pouty lips that have helped land her on lists reserved
for some of the world’s most beautiful people. As friendly chatter ensues, she
slowly reveals how a laundry load of clothes inspired her to launch a biz for
new moms just like her.
Grams knows best
When Jessica was pregnant with her older
daughter, Honor, she turned to her own parents for advice. “My mom said, ‘You
have to wash all the baby’s clothes in this [certain brand of] detergent
because that’s baby detergent,’” she recalls. “But when I used it, I had a
massive allergy attack. I had hives on my skin and I was sneezing. No way was I
putting this on a newborn. If it was making me feel this bad, imagine how an
infant with no immune system would react!”
Shortly thereafter, “I bought these brown
diapers,” she says. “They weren’t cute, but I said, ‘You know what, though,
they’re natural.’ Then I found out that the inside of the diaper had the same
petroleum-based chemicals as the other diapers. I put a brown diaper on my baby
for nothing!”
Jessica wasn’t always re-carpet-ready
If Jessica’s motivated by a desire to
protect her kids’ health, she’s also spurred on by painful memories of her
childhood. It’s hard to believe it looking at her now – in slim leggings,
combat boots and an oversize top, she’s the very picture of fitness – but she
spent her earliest years in and out of hospitals. “I had asthma and allergies
that were so severe, my throat would sometimes close,” she shares. “I had a
collapsed lung.” Before she was 10, she’d had everything from a kidney
operation to pneumonia and appendicitis.
Today she says she eats mostly organic and
fresh foods and considers her triple nonfat latte her biggest indulgence – it’s
not that hard to figure out why she looks so good. She gently steers Honor
toward smart choices too. “I give her flavored sparkling water,” she says. “She
thinks that it’s soda. I told her that ‘brown soda’ is only for adults, and she
believes it!”
Sometimes honestly is overrated
If you’ve picked up a tabloid recently, you
know paparazzi follow this star’s every move. “If Honor’s like, ‘What are they
doing?’ I don’t want her to have anxiety,” Jessica says. “So I’m like,” ‘Oh,
nothing. They‘re just taking pictures. They do that to everyone. Isn’t that
silly?’ And then that’s it. It’s a non-issue. Cash and I just ignore them.”
You’d think she’d leap to correct every lie
printed about her or cringe at the criticisms, but “No, I really don’t care as
long as it doesn’t affect my family and their happiness,” she says. “Whether
it’s true or false, I won't say anything. I think it’s just going to add fuel
to the fire. My mom’s like. ‘It’s not true! That’s an outright lie!’ I tell
her, ‘Yeah, but if I come our and say that, then it’s going to be circulated
again.’”
Her girls = true happiness
“The biggest surprise of motherhood is just
how secondary everything else is,” Jessica says. “Before, I was always so
focused on my career. Now nothing is more important to me than my kids and
their well-being.”
