Jessica Alba Gets Candid About Growing Up In “Survival Mode”

In a recent interview with Glamour UK, Jessica Alba shared how growing up in a financially unstable house shaped her adolescent years and eventually led to her Hollywood as well as entrepreneurial success. The 41-year-old Fantastic Four actress opened up about her childhood, her upbringing, and her parents’ early lives.
“I grew up in survival mode,” said the Golden Globe-nominated actor, “It was almost sort of what I was born into. My parents didn’t have a safety net, they were living paycheck to paycheck. And so the mentality of ‘tomorrow’s not guaranteed.’ For me, I was like, ‘I got to do everything I can to keep my head above water.’”
This keen drive for success, she recalls, was also partly because no one around her expected to become successful or self-sufficient.
“I think because no one had any expectations that I would be successful, how could you fail? I wasn’t set up–no one was like, ‘Oh my God, you’re going to be…’ They were just like, ‘Here’s your life.’ And I was like, ‘This is some bullshit. I want a better life than that. I don’t want to be in survival mode all the time,’” she said.
Perhaps it was this lack of expectation that urged the actor to push herself. At only 11 years old, Alba decided to become an actress after winning an acting competition in Beverly Hills, and the rest is history. “I think I’m naturally an introvert. So for me, it [acting] was a way to fit into the world if I get to be somebody else.”
She went on to land major roles in Hollywood films like Fantastic Four, Into The Blue, and Sin City. While the struggles she faced as a child went away, new ones cropped up. As a woman of color, she became increasingly aware of discrimination in the industry at an early age. She was labeled “exotic” and was not considered for leading roles.
“The system just has to be more diverse. Especially when 60% of people entering the workforce are women. But then when you get to executive level and C-suite, VP and above, it really diminishes to [around] 14%, 15%. So you’re like, ‘What the hell happened?’ We started at 60% and then now we’re at 15%, 14%? What’s going on?’”
“I would say a lot of it has to do with women’s health and support around our health and our bodies. We’re complex and we need to be treated with care. And we can’t sort of be demeaned and shamed for having complex bodies that actually create life,” she adds.
Alba’s tenacity in the face of these hardships is what makes her the success she is today — an actress, a proud mother of three, and a successful businesswoman. She is the founder of The Honest Company, a brand that offers sustainable and safe beauty products, baby products, and cleaning supplies.
“I approached it [business] the way I approached Hollywood, which was that I just did it. You have to be relentless.”