While Blake Lively is undoubtedly a woman of many talents, the 28-year-old beauty isn't afraid to admit she's still navigating her strengths.
One day after the erstwhile Gossip Girl star announced she's shutting down her lifestyle website Preserve on Oct. 9 after just one-year of operation, the mother of one took to Instagram to thank her fans for their support.
"Thank you guys for your support every step of the way in the @preserve_us adventure. I couldn't be more grateful!! One day I'll stop wearing so many hats ....but ...I'll probably be dead by then, so... I'm just doin' what mama taught me ;) She's my idol. Who's yours?" she captioned a photo of herself wearing, of course, a handful of hats, before adding one of her signature silly hashtags, "#WhyIsThereNoEmojiForSpiceGirlsPowerFingers?!!!"
Lively first revealed her decision to shut down Preserve to Vogue—the same publication that announced her launch of the lifestyle site with a cover story in July 2014.
The actress, who is currently filming two projects—the Marc Foster-directed thriller All I See Is You and an untitled Woody Allen film—admitted the website failed to live up to her expectations.
"It's very exciting and it's also incredibly scary," Lively told Vogue. "I never thought I would have the bravery to actually do that, to take the site dark and to say, 'You know what? I haven't created something that is as true and impactful as I know it can and will be. And I'm not going to continue to chase my tail and continue to put a product out there that we, as a team, are not proud of.'"
While Lively's vision of connecting consumers to artisans may not have been achieved, Ryan Reynolds wife also admitted that the website, which is currently hosting a massive sale, was launched prematurely.
"We have an incredible team of people who do beautiful work, but we launched the site before it was ready, and it never caught up to its original mission: It's not making a difference in people's lives, whether superficially or in a meaningful way," Lively explained. "And that's the whole reason I started this company, not just to fluff myself, like, 'I'm a celebrity! People will care what I have to say!' It was so never meant to be that, and that kind of became the crutch because it was already up and already running, and it's hard to build a brand when you're running full steam ahead—how do you catch up?"
Lively also admitted she expected a great deal of media backlash for her decision—criticism which she lightheartedly called "champagne problems."
"I know what it'll look like, what I'm facing publicly, that people are just going to have a heyday with this," she said. "But it's so much worse to continue to put something out there - to ask my team to put something out there - that isn't the best we can do."
What do you think of Lively's decision to shut down Preserve? Tell us in the comments.