About Joanna Gaines
Joanna Gaines (née Stevens; born April 19, 1978) is an American interior designer, television personality, and author. She co-hosted the home renovation show Fixer Upper, which began airing on HGTV in 2013, alongside her husband Chip Gaines.
The Gaineses also helm the media brand Magnolia, which encompasses the Magnolia E-commerce site, the Hearth & Hand with Magnolia collection of home decor items for Target, the lifestyle magazine Magnolia Journal, the Magnolia Network television channel on which Fixer Upper and its spinoff series now air, the Magnolia Realty real estate brokerage (originally established by the pair in 2003), and the Magnolia App.
Gaines is also the New York Times bestselling author or co-author of seven books including cookbooks, memoirs, a home design book, and children's books.
Gaines was born Joanna Stevens on April 19, 1978, in Wichita, Kansas to Korean immigrant, Nan Stevens; and American of Lebanese–German heritage, Jerry Stevens. Her parents met in Seoul, South Korea in 1969 when Jerry was stationed there with the United States Army. In 1990, when she was 12 years old, the family settled in Austin, Texas. During her junior year of high school, they relocated to Waco, Texas, where her father opened a franchise Firestone Tire store, Jerry Stevens Firestone. Joanna appeared in television commercials for the business.
Gaines has said that throughout her childhood she was often the only Asian-American student at the schools she attended and experienced bullying. After moving to Waco, she said her situation improved, and she was eventually named homecoming queen by fellow students.
After graduating high school, Gaines attended Baylor University, where she majored in communications. She interned at Waco's KWTX television and KWBU radio stations and later spent a semester in New York City working as an intern on 48 Hours anchored by Dan Rather. She has said that during her studies she hoped to one day work as a broadcast journalist herself. She graduated from Baylor in 2001.
In 2001, Chip Gaines, who had overlapped with Joanna at Baylor in 1998 but never met her, encountered her while she was working at her father's tire shop and recognized her from the commercials. The two began dating, and in 2003, they were married in Waco.
Chip and Joanna Gaines belong to the evangelical Antioch Community Church, which has been criticized for its anti-gay views.
They have five children: Drake, Ella, Duke, Emmie, and Crew.
As of April 2024, she has amassed 13.8 million followers on her Instagram platform.