Photo Credit: Allen Daniel
After giving birth to three children in less than five years, Molly Sims is more super mother than supermodel. Instead of walking the runways, she’s chasing runaway toddlers. Instead of traveling to exotic locations to shoot Sports Illustrated’s annual swimsuit issue, she’s staging iPhone shoots at home that chronicle the monthly growth of her eighth-month old son, Grey Douglas. Instead of hosting MTV’s House of Style, she hosts a DIY mom-friendly YouTube channel. Instead of filming scenes for an upcoming episode of her former hit show Las Vegas, she films videos discussing her favorite back-to-school backpacks for her namesake lifestyle blog.
“You get engaged, then you get married. Then you get pregnant. Then you get pregnant again. Then you get pregnant again. For me, all the change was a little overwhelming,” Sims recently told Haute Living. And yet, she takes it gracefully and passionately with stride. Instead of wallowing, she’s embraced the chaos that is her current life and refers to it lovingly as a “happy mess.” In fact, she has a neon red sign with those words on a wall at her home. It serves as a reminder to welcome the craziness and all the challenges it brings. “I mean, it can get messy. That’s for sure. I guess my best advice is embrace the mess and be involved in it and don’t miss those moments. It’s hard. I’m not going to lie. It’s a lot, but it’s that beautiful happy mess,” she says with a hint of Southern twang in her voice.
Photo Credit: Allen Daniel
Although the Kentucky native with classic California-girl looks has stepped back from her acting and modeling career to focus on being a mother, she has not stopped working. It’s quite the opposite: she’s thrown herself into creating original content for her website, MollySims.com, including weekly videos for her YouTube channel. She published a best-selling book, The Everyday Supermodel: My Beauty, Fashion, and Wellness Secrets Made Simple, in which she shares her hard-earned fashion, beauty, and fitness advice while encouraging readers to be the best version of themselves. And this fall, on October 10 to be exact, she’s coming out with a second book, Everyday Chic: My Secrets for Entertaining, Organizing, and Decorating at Home.
“It’s about what tips and tricks I can give you in terms of making things look better and seem better. Like things that take a lot of effort, make them look effortless. Put a little bit of love in your family, yourself, and your house. How can I organize something a little better? How can I make a one-pot chicken that’s awesome and will feed a family of five for three days? Here’s how to make your door look more expensive just by adding glossy paint. It’s little tips and tricks. I brought on great experts. I brought on people in the entertaining business, moms, a few celebrities.”
Photo Credit: Allen Daniel
Sims’ ability to rely on experts is what makes her so relatable and down to earth. She knows she can’t organize her pantry as well as a professional, so she hires one and then shares the professional’s contact information with all her friends. She’s the first to admit that she’s “not a foodie” on the same level as Martha Stewart or Ina Garten, but rather, just a normal mom trying to feed her family—albeit an incredibly glamorous and savvy one. The people she mentions in the book range from experts like parenting guru Dr. Robin Berman to fellow bloggers such as the Glitter Guide’s Taylor Sterling to her famous friends—Cindy Crawford (who shares her Casamigos margarita recipe), Jessica Alba, and Jennifer Garner. Sims acknowledges that she can’t do it all alone. “I talked to people and I asked a lot of questions. I built a village. I built a mom village,” she says.
Like her website, the book is a direct look into Sims’ personal life. Everything pictured—a first-birthday white-layer cake, a tidy mudroom with navy shelves, a couch covered in tasseled throw pillows—is an actual part of Sims’ everyday chic. The cake? That was for her daughter Scarlett’s first birthday. The mudroom? She was inspired by her son Brooks’ preschool to create a series of cubbies, baskets, and shelves to store the family’s essentials (hats, sunscreen, etc.). The pillows? She’s collected those over the years.
Not only do readers get a glimpse of her family life and relationship with husband, Scott Stuber, but they also get a good sense of who she is as a woman and role model. Her writing style is friendly, unpretentious, and self-deprecating. It’s authentic and real. Sims is the sort of girl you want as an older sister—she provides tough love in a compassionate way. She’s the type of gal pal who tells you that your outfit isn’t working or that there’s still time to find The One at age 35 (she didn’t meet Stuber until she was 38) or that you shouldn’t be afraid of life’s curveballs. “The best advice I can give someone young is don’t be afraid of change. It’s the best thing. Sometimes it’s the scariest thing. Honestly, it’s the best thing. The best things that happen in my life are with the biggest amount of change.”
Sims is confident in herself and now that she’s in her 40s, she’s learned to let go of worrying too much. The final chapter in the book is titled “keeping sh*t real.” She realizes that the haters are going to hate and there is nothing she can do about it, so why let it get her down? “Honestly, I don’t even care anymore. I just burst out laughing. I’m like ‘God, the news must be really slow to have a whole Daily Mail article dedicated to me holding a phone case upside down,’” Sims says. She is referring to a recent article in which she is mocked for posing with an iPhone upside down. “All the people who are in the public who have a public lifestyle, we just have to do the best we can. No one’s perfect. I mean, you’ll get criticized wearing your babybjörn one inch higher or one inch lower. People will tear you apart just to do it. Mommy shaming can be really bad. We need to be each other’s advocates as opposed to haters.”
Photo Credit: Erica Hampton
Sims is concerned about how social media will affect the life of her young daughter. “It’s tricky. That’s the one thing I do worry about even now. I think because social media has changed all of that so much and it’s so—everything is about being Photoshopped and Photoshopped again, and Instagram and Facetime. You just have to be a positive reinforcement that you’re enough and you’re good,” she sighs before continuing. “For me, I have to be careful of not talking about dieting. I can’t say ‘Oh, God. I look fat in these jeans.’ I also try not to expose her too early to all of that. She’s not going to have an iPhone when she’s five. It’s not happening. It’s okay if you do it. It’s just not for me and my family. Because I was a model and because I’m someone in the public, I am probably more self-conscious about it. I don’t want her to think ‘Oh, you have to be skinny.’ No, you have to be smart! You can be beautiful, but let’s focus on being smart and you’re enough.”
Every now and then Sims has to remind herself that she’s doing enough as a mother. “It’s hard. I’m normally the captain of the ship and sometimes that ship is rocky. So it’s definitely—I think time management, you know, the guilt. I have this immense amount of guilt. I feel like I’m not doing this more or I’m doing this too much.” Still, she’s not putting too much pressure on herself and she makes it a point to schedule me time. “Keep that part of you because the better you are, the better mom you’re going to be, the better wife you’re going to be, the better girlfriend you’re going to be, the better friend you’re going to be, the better sister you’re going to be, if you still have you. If you just never get out, never change out of your yoga clothes in the morning… You’ve got to make yourself feel good.” Facials, date nights, time to make baby food—Sims schedules it all.
Photo Credit: Allen Daniel
Her life is full, but she’s loving it. When asked if she’s contemplating a fourth child she quickly answers, “We are complete. This shop is closed!” Does she have any plans to return to television or the catwalk anytime soon? “No, I don’t. I miss it. I love it. I’m going to go back to it, but I’m going to enjoy them first—my family. When am I most happy? Reading books to my kids—and having a glass of wine at night.” Spoken like a true modern-day model mother.
