You're listening to I Choose Me with Jenny Garland. We're back with Melissa Gilbert. So much wisdom and kindness to share. I can't wait for you to hear the rest of our conversation. Okay, well, of course we have to talk about Little House on the Prairie. I know how much people love nine O two and zero, and that's just from the nineties. You started a lot earlier. You've recently celebrated the fiftieth anniversary, and also a show that's never been off the air. It's always on somewhere.
Yeah, it's wild. It's wild to be a part of something that has that kind of longevity, but the legacy of it and it's so beloved. People love that show. They love the stories that we told. They love the relevance of the stories that we told. They they're now people are looking back and going, oh, Little House. They told some pretty poble stuff.
And just in such a like a non offensive way, like not like it.
Was not its real Yeah, exactly, it was not exploitive. We were telling Michael Landon was consciously telling the stories of the nineteen seventies through the lens of the eighteen seventies. We were talking about civil rights and veterans coming home from the Civil War on our show where the veterans coming home from the Vietnam War. These were all topical and important stories, and unfortunately, so many of them are still things we need to discuss today. So that's why
I think Little House continues on. I mean, we you know, we did dumb, fluffy episodes where we just had fun Jennify on Halloween, but it was it was pretty hard hitting. We took on rape, arson, crib death, all kinds of horrible, horrible things on that show.
Yeah. I have always been a fan. I watched it when I was little, I've watched it with my daughters. I got to work with Shannon Doherty who was played Jenny.
Yes she did. She sure did.
Such such good, good memories of my childhood from watching that show.
Yeah, Yeah, And.
It's been such an incredible jumping off point for so many other things. On top of having this great, successful career outside of that show, you really kind of chose to take ownership of Laura, and you seem okay being a little bit her forever.
Well, I mean, I'm her and she's me. It's really hard to do. It's really hard to differentiate between the two because it was so ingrained in you know, I was nine years old. It's an acting I was pretending. I mean, it was a game, it was a job. Certainly I had mendus responsibility, but it was it was
an adventure more than anything else. And it's you know, when I was in my mid to late teens in early twenties, I sort of wanted to distance myself from it a bit because I wanted to establish myself as a young woman when people were still thinking I'm twelve, and that was kind of a hard, prickly time. But now as I've aged, it's obviously something that I've really
come to embrace wholeheartedly. And now with my lifestyle brand with my partner Nicole Hosey, and I with Modern Prairie, we've taken that whole ethos and all of that feeling and goodwill around Laura and Little House and the Prairie and moved it into the future by modernizing it for women our age and beyond and created a community where they can gather and share and support one another through all of these things we're going through at this part
of our lives. Yes, there's a business component to it. There's products, there's clothing, there's crafting. But we have free events and seminars on everything from finding joy after grief to being a caregiver to making pigh crust. There's something for everybody. And the women in our community and on our app are now starting to gather together away from us on their own and have meetups and lunches. And these are women who have felt underappreciated and marginalized simply because of their age.
You know, I was going to ask you about this because in twenty twenty two, if I'm correct, that's when you founded Mone Prairie. Yes, you're with Nicole, your partner. Why did you decide that that was the right time to focus some of your energy on that? It's no small feet. I've done it too. I have kind of pivoted to embrace my past and bring it into my future. And you know what, the whole I choose me and very very very similar stories you and I. Yeah, what
made you want to do that? Like? How did you figure out you wanted to do that?
It sort of fell into place. I mean for many many years I knew there was the potential for something Prairie branded, something there, and I had had conversations with the branding department at the agency where I'm a client for years, and we sort of came up with a deck and an idea of what it might be, but it fell by the wayside. And then I came to know Nicole, who at the time was working in swim swimwear and she was working for a company that was
designing swimwear for the seasoned woman. Let's call me And we had a mutual friend who introduced us, and so Nicole and I did some Instagram lives. She fitted me. She sent me swimwear which is like the torch, like trying on jeans, it's agony, and this is so easy and this it was great, great swimwear. I felt really good on n even posted pictures and she and I just started chatting and I told her that, you know, I'd had this idea for something but it never happened,
and she said, let me get back to you. And about a week later she came back to me and she created this deck and this idea for this company, and she said, I think I want to do this with you. How about you? And I said, are you kidding? This is amazing because it was so much more than I or anyone around me had ever come up with before, because it wasn't just retail, it wasn't just killing stuff. It was creating this community in this world of women
supporting women now at this phase of our lives. And so we did it ourselves. We bootstrapped this ourselves, we funded it ourselves, We've created it. We're really scrappy. We still are, you know, We're we're doing really well. The business is growing in leaps and bounds and amazing. Yeah. Yeah, and now we're at the point where we're actually going to have to start hiring people to do some of the things we do because we're doing too many jobs.
Yes, I mean, who knew at this stage in your life as a seasoned woman, which, by the way, what is your definition of a seasoned woman? I'm cureus. I'm kind of no, but like I want to hear you tell me.
I think it's experience, wisdom, knowledge, self awareness. I think that's it. I think I think that's it.
Seasoned. I like it.
Yeah.
Yeah. The building of the community is really like at the core of it, which I admire.
Thank you and I.
Wish you all the best, you know, I was going to say before, like, at this stage in our lives, who would have thunk that we would be back to the drawing board, like grinding again to create these you with yours and me with mine. Like I've never worked harder in my life.
Yeah, no, I know, I know, it's it's extraordinary, but it's this. It's a different kind of work this go around. But right it's like a joyous creative creative. There's so much yes ending that goes on in our business and and and for us with the crafting space and being able to bring that part of myself into the business, and and then you know, we just did. We've we've done an initiative that I love so much. We have
we're in the quilting space now. We have created fabrics for quilts, a fabric kit with Riley Blake, who's a big fabric distributor for quilting, and it did really well. We're launching our second, our second kit. But in the meantime, we did quilting lessons on the app and I learned to quilt. And now we've done this thing where the women who quilted have all done blocks with our.
Fast saw that on your Instagram.
Yeap, including myself, and then we've embroidered our names on it and little messages on it, and our master quilter and quilting teacher is assembling them into four quilts that we're going to give to Jennifer Garner and save the children for their big gala and auction. And we're debuting those at a thing called Garden of Quilts in Utah, which is our first It's going to be the venue for our first in person modern prairie meeting for all
of our ladies. So we were able to gather as a community, even all over the world and country to create these quilts that will benefit children in a way that we would not have been able to otherwise. And there's something so traditionally beautiful about that. It's like a quilting circle, a pair of people in the village. Right we're taking care of children in our country.
It's so full circle. I can't take it.
I know, it's crazy.
It's like you are back to where you began and really able to put your heart and soul into it in a way now because you're calling the shots, you're leading the you know, you and your partner are the bosses Yeah, it's gosh, I know I can relate. It's such a great feeling. It's it's so different.
It really is. It's business, but it's beyond that, and that is so fulfilling.
It's the community. Yep, yep, I love that. So I do know that You're longevity in this business is really remarkable. What would you want women like me or women out there who are listening to know about staying the course, staying true to yourself and all the women that not just in our industry, but all the women everywhere, because it's not just applicable to show business.
I think it's really important. If I could choose one thing, it would be to stay curious. One of my favorite things is when I walk into a room or zoom or a situation and I'm not the smartest person in the room, There's always someone I can learn from, and I think that's that keeps that spark alive in us. You can see those people who think that they know everything.
A lot of the leaders in world leaders and in our country are that way, and they just look sour and heavy and burdened because they've lost that curiosity, and that curiosity is well, that's that's the laura. Yep, that's what it is, and and that's what will keep me vibrant and vital and excited about getting up in the morning and doing something and learning something that curiosity, stay curious, stay curious.
That is great advice. Wow, I just love our conversation that you are. I'm just I'm in awe of you. I want to I want to be you. Kind of is that weird?
Oh?
I love the laura inside of you so much. It's so present. It's just it's you've come so far. Wow, you've you're a great example.
Oh, bless your heart. So are you. I think we're sort of in like the same kind of pace and this will serve us really well. You know, we'll we'll we'll reconnoiter in our in our eighties. Well I'll be in my eighties before you. I will see where we are then do.
I'm so curious what's going to happen.
I don't know, but I anticipate great things.
Great things. It's been an absolute pleasure talking to you.
Oh, thank you so much for inviting me. This was really special. And I do hope our past cross in person at some point because that would be really nice.
I do too. I will give you the biggest hug. I hope it's not too weird.
No, not at all. It won't be all.
Have great back, okay, all right, thank you Melissa,