The Full Gorgeous Transformation Of HGTV's Joanna Gaines

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Joanna Gaines found fame as one half of HGTV's most iconic couple alongside her husband, Chip Gaines. The home-improvement couple quickly became one of the network's most bankable duos when "Fixer Upper" hit the airwaves back in 2013. However, those who only know Gaines from the show have only scratched the surface of her gorgeous transformation. The mom of five has come a long way since growing up in Kansas and Texas, and she's faced her fair share of roadblocks. Gaines has been very open about her personal difficulties, including struggling with her identity, being bullied for her ethnicity, and the perils of burnout as one of the hardest-working women on TV. But all that has only made this popular personality stronger, as she's built an enviable empire as an astute businesswoman with dreams and achievements that are anything but small.

Though the Gaines have become synonymous with home improvement, design, and décor, that was never actually this star's goal. "The beauty of life is that sometimes the things that get you to one point may not be actually what you need to carry with you in the future, but because you're there, you may find something you would have never found," she told "The Business of Home Podcast." "The way that life works is that as you continue to move forward and you say yes, you'll see how everything just weaves together to tell that full story of where you end up later. I feel very grateful for that journey, even though there were a lot of pivots, and it didn't feel like at the moment I was actually going forward," she added. So, let's strip back the drywall of Gaines' life and go back to the foundation.

Gaines was born Joanna Stevens in 1978 to a half-Lebanese, half-German dad and a Korean mom and grew up in Wichita, Kansas. But, much like Gaines' fellow HGTV star Erin Napier's transformation, she struggled with her identity as a youngster. "Most people don't look at me and automatically think I'm half-Korean. But in those first couple of years in elementary school, kids started picking on me because of it," she recalled during a since-removed Q&A session on her blog (via Country Living). She elaborated on her experience to Darling Magazine, sharing, "When you're that age you don't know really how to process that ... The way you take that is, 'Who I am isn't good enough.'"

The racially motivated bullying Gaines faced was so intense that she shared in her book "The Stories We Tell: Every Piece of Your Stories Matter" that she lied to her schoolmates about her name. She told them her middle name was "Anne" because she felt "Lee" didn't sound traditionally Western. She explained on "Today," "I tried my best to fit in, acting as though I didn't get their jokes about my slanted eyes or hear their whispers when I'd opt for rice instead of fries in the cafeteria line." She continued: "It was like I couldn't find my place. I remember going to Korean church and feeling like, 'I don't look like them,' because I ... was a 'halfie.' And then going to school and being the only girl who looked pretty Asian."

Around 1991, the Stevens family moved from Kansas to Texas, and Gaines started a new high school as a sophomore. But assimilating with her new classmates in a larger, new school was no easy task. "I literally walked in the lunchroom and walked out and went into the bathroom. My fear and my insecurities just took over and I felt like I'd way rather sit in the stall than get rejected," she recalled to Darling of her first day. Fortunately, the Stevens family moved again, not too long after, and Gaines started attending a much smaller school where she found it easier to make friends.

But even after creating a close circle of confidants, Gaines still wasn't the most outgoing youngster and felt she wasn't truly understood by her peers. "I was really shy in high school and throughout college. It would bother me when people would mistake my quietness as being uninterested, or even snobby," she wrote in her and Chip's magazine, "Magnolia Journal," in 2019 (via Closer).

Around 1997, Gaines was settled in Texas and ready for the next big step in her life. She attended McLennan Community College (MCC) for two years and majored in business, as she planned to take over her dad's tire store. Though Gaines agreed to inherit the family business (where she also worked), she admitted to Cherry Bombe, "Internally, I was like, 'I don't want to sell tires for the rest of my life.' But I couldn't tell my dad that." However, things shifted when Gaines discovered her passion for TV and news. "I started doing local television commercials for [my dad] while I was a student at MCC," she told Baylor Arts and Science. "When I saw the filming and production process, I was really intrigued. I loved the editing side of it. So when I transferred to Baylor for the fall of 1998, that's when I decided to study broadcast journalism. I wanted to be on the news," she shared.

During her final semester at Baylor, Gaines moved to New York by herself. "[The insecurities] came back up again — just the thought of, 'Am I good enough?'" she recalled to Darling. Thankfully, Gaines didn't let her insecurities get the better of her, and she worked hard to land internships with the likes of KWTX Channel 10 and "48 Hours with Dan Rather." When Gaines left the Big Apple and headed back to Texas, though, she had a major career change of heart. "I realized I didn't want to do news anymore. At that point, I started thinking I wanted to do something a little more creative, and I put pursuing a news career on pause," she told Baylor Arts and Science.

Though Gaines and Chip had an overlapping semester at Baylor University, they didn't meet until 2001, after both had graduated, during a chance encounter in Gaines' dad's tire shop. "Her dad made the mistake of putting a pic of the family behind the counter ... I knew I'd marry her one day just by the picture on the wall," Chip told PopSugar. Gaines added, "We met in the waiting area and hit it off immediately. He was genuinely engaging and he had such a sincere smile." Chip called the store the day after they met to ask Gaines out, and she agreed.

But, before their first date, Chip left Gaines less than impressed. In their book, "The Magnolia Story," Gaines recalled Chip being an hour and a half late for their first date. "I gave him the benefit of the doubt. But when [7 p.m.] came and went, I was officially done," Gaines wrote. When Chip eventually turned up, Gaines had no intention of going on the date. She even recalled telling her friends, "I don't want to go anywhere with this idiot." Somehow, though, Chip charmed Gaines, and she reluctantly agreed (again) to go out with him.

Despite a rocky start, their first date turned into two, and before they knew it, they were an official couple and flipping houses together. Gaines admitted on "Today" she initially thought her boyfriend was "crazy" for buying rundown properties, but soon saw the benefits. "Our first fixer upper together, we really learned how to work together," she said, suggesting they learned the importance of being direct as partners.

In 2003, the year after Gaines and Chip's first date, they got engaged at the mall, but with no ring. The two told People they picked out her ring together and tied the knot in Waco later that year. Life immediately after they became Mr. and Mrs. was a whirlwind. "In the first months of our marriage, we were always flipping a house," Gaines said, sharing that they began working on their first marital home as soon as they returned from their honeymoon. "The house was bad. Chip did all the construction, and I remember many nights he was on his hands and knees staining floors or laying tile," she told PopSugar.

But renovating their home was far from the only thing the newlyweds had on their plate. Also in 2003, the Gaineses opened a home goods store called Magnolia, but Gaines didn't immediately feel at home with her new job. "Women would come in and literally ask me for advice and I remember sitting there behind the counter going, 'Oh my gosh, what am I going to say?' ... And so I'd start making stuff up ... That was my education," she told "Today." She also opened up about how much she learned behind the counter on "The Business of Home Podcast," sharing, "I always second-guessed myself before ... and so what the years in that little shop did to me was help me go with my gut instinct and go more on feeling than fact when it comes to design."

Around two years after Gaines married Chip, they jumped headfirst into parenthood. "We had babies early in the process," Chip admitted to People, referring to their firstborn son, Drake, who they welcomed in 2005 (the same year Gaines closed Magnolia to focus on her family). They then had four more children: Ella in 2006, Duke in 2008, Emmie in 2010, and Crew in 2018.

Gaines has been very candid about parenthood throughout her career, including the reality of welcoming her fifth child early in her fourth decade and how it changed her. "I kid with people, 'If you ever want to feel young again, have a baby at 40,'" she told People. "It's brought this whole new thing for me where I'm a lot more laid-back ... I've just relaxed so much more, and it's been fun for me," she added. The TV personality also proved motherhood doesn't have to mean adopting a drab, practical wardrobe, as Gaines has rocked some spicy, leggy looks.

Mirroring fellow HGTV star Christina Haack's transformation, it wasn't until 2013 that Gaines and Chip began courting fame. Gaines had written a guest post on DesignMom.com, which caught the attention of a TV producer who contacted them with the proposition of appearing on a home-improvement reality show. The two were reluctant about the process, but began shooting the HGTV show that would become known as "Fixer Upper." The show saw the twosome offer home design advice while fixing up properties and balancing their business in Waco, Texas. The pilot episode was a huge success for the network, with Texas Monthly reporting 1.9 million people tuned in to see the Gaineses' TV debut.

The success of the show manifested into various huge business ventures for the Gaineses. The two reopened their Magnolia store in 2014, and interest was so intense that they quickly outgrew their original location and moved the business downtown. Four years later, they renamed the shop Little Shop on Bosque. As if that wasn't enough, the busy couple began selling baked goods via the Silos Baking Co. in 2016 and expanded their portfolio via the Magnolia Press Coffee Co. in 2018. They also launched their own line with Target and opened a bed and breakfast, making the two busier than ever.

"Fixer Upper" ran for five seasons until 2018, when Gaines confirmed on their blog that the show would be ending. "[The children are] so young, and we want to give them the chance to have a normal childhood," she explained. Chip later elaborated on their decision to step back, admitting they desperately needed a break. "We were burned out, we were exhausted," he told "Kennebec Cabin Company" in 2023.

After years of letting Chip Gaines take the lead on their business ventures, Gaines found her voice and took a more dominant role in their working relationship in 2018. "For years, I was like, 'Chip's the lead. I like to be behind the scenes ... But [around 2018] ... I started feeling this thing rise up in me that it's like, 'You are also a leader. You may not lead like your husband, you're quieter, but you need to rise up, and you need to ... feel confident in that ...'" she told Cherry Bombe. She explained she made the decision to be more vocal and assertive to be a good example for her daughters.

The following year, Gaines and Chip stepped up and put their TV careers into their own hands. They announced their return via their media company as they confirmed they were launching a network and an app. "Our intention with this network is to create and curate content that inspires, encourages, and helps to build bridges across our communities," they said in a statement (via E! News). The couple called their new project Magnolia Network.

Amid the launch of Magnolia Network, the Gaineses focused on bringing back the show that made them household names and initially re-launched "Fixer Upper" as a reboot titled "Fixer Upper: Welcome Home" in 2021. "The day we wrapped our final episode of 'Fixer Upper,' we really believed it was a chapter closed. We knew we needed a break and a moment to catch our breath. But we also knew we weren't done dreaming about ways to make old things new again," the two said in a statement (via The Futon Critic).

But one reinvention wasn't enough for Gaines, whose outdated outfits suggest she didn't upgrade her fashion with her career. "Fixer Upper: The Castle" premiered in 2022; they launched "Fixer Upper: The Hotel" in 2023, and "Fixer Upper: The Lakehouse" in 2024. Amid the 2024 airing and at a time they were arguably busier than ever, the Gaineses (who have sent divorce rumors flying a few times) revealed they planned to take a well-deserved break by taking the summer off. "That time away gave us clarity for what's next, and [reinforced that] sometimes it's important to step away for a second so you can understand what you're holding," Gaines said on "The Business of Home Podcast." They were back to work in 2025, though. The couple launched another spinoff series, "Fixer Upper: Colorado Mountain House," in 2025, which starred the couple's daughter, Ella Gaines, who was 19 at the time.

Twenty-twenty-five was all about new things for Gaines, including designing a Barbie Dreamhouse (complete with a Barbie that looked just like her!). "Growing up, the world of Barbie always felt to me like endless possibility," the designer told People. Gaines also released a children's book, "The World Needs the Wonder You See," and launched the Food Network series "Magnolia Table: At the Farm." But they weren't the only different things in Gaines' life in 2025. 

She was also getting used to her kids flying the nest, as she shared an emotional Instagram post about having two kids at college (Drake entered his third year, while Ella started her first). "This season already feels like one big, breathless surrender. Lord, how do I hold them close while also letting go?" she wrote. Gaines told People she found it harder to let Ella go than Drake, admitting, "We love to go to antiques shops, plant shops and go get coffee — that's our rhythm. I kind of feel like I'm losing a friend in my everyday life."

But Gaines stayed busy. In 2026, she launched a new collection in her collaboration with Target, and she and Chip introduced Magnolia Field at Baylor Ballpark, partnering with Baylor Baseball. And if we've learned anything about Gaines, it's that there's always something bigger and potentially unexpected on the horizon.