Blake Lively stands a bit taller with her daughters by her side.
The A Simple Favor actress told Forbes that having children helped her gain confidence in her personal and professional lives. Blake—who shares James, 7, Inez, 5, and Betty, 2, with Ryan Reynolds—explained that her daughter have made her time "more precious."
"Having children for me made me feel so much more in my skin," she shared. "I never felt more myself or at ease in my own body or more confident—not to say that there aren't a bevy of insecurities coming at me a million times a day, but I just feel incredibly settled."
Blake continued, "I just think that growing up, having kids, all of those things made me feel like I only want to do things where I can have really meaningful collaborations and have authorship."
She shared that she values collaboration more and has "never been happier, professionally."
Blake has been making big career moves lately and will soon take a seat in the director's chair. She made her directorial debut for her bestie Taylor Swift's music video for "I Bet You Think About Me" featuring Chris Stapleton in November. Now, the 34-year-old is taking the on the big screen by directing her first movie, Seconds, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The movie is based on the graphic by the same name, created by Scott Pilgrim author Bryan Lee O'Malley.
In her interview with Forbes, Blake looked back at the start of her career, saying, "I began acting when I was 16 years old and hone you begin acting, you'll take whatever job you can get. With opportunity if you're fortunate enough, you're able to be a little bit more selective about your jobs—but even once you're there, as an actor, you are very often just a ‘person-for-hire' versus the person telling the story or the person leading the way."
With the help of her children opening up her eyes to the value of authorship, she explained that she started to ask for more out of her projects. "I'm just way too nosy and involved and curious and active to be happy just saying, 'Put me anywhere and I'll just stand and say whatever you want and wear whatever clothes you want,'" she said. "So even in my professional career, I saw that I was feeling less and less fulfilled when I wasn't able to also have authorship."
As Blake takes on her new directorial role and prepares to reprise her part in the sequel to A Simple Favor, she continues to prioritize family.
"Family is at the root of everything that I do and it's also at the root of everything that I create," she told Forbes. "So whenever I create something, I create something with family in mind because that's just how I live."