Blake Lively has changed her perspective on her lifestyle website, Preserve.
In an interview with Vogue published on Tuesday, the 28-year-old former "Gossip Girl" star announced that her website will go dark on Oct. 9, admitting that the site - which sold decor, accessories and clothing at high but sometimes reasonable price - was not living up to her high expectations.
"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," she told Vogue.
"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?" she continued.
After launching the site in July 2014, the actress and new mom received plenty of criticism about the content and items sold; however Lively admitted that she was well aware of her critics and their opinions. The actress said she wasn't happy with presenting a brand that her and her team "are not proud of."
"It's very exciting and it's also incredibly scary," she said. "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 that we, as a team, are not proud of.'"
But not to worry - Lively revealed to Vogue that she plans to rework the site and reopen on her own time.
"I know what it'll look like, what I'm facing publicly, that people are just going to have a heyday with this ... The only way I can prove all the negative reactions wrong is to come back with a plan that will rock people," she admitted. "I have that plan. I'm so excited about it, and that's what gave me the courage to do this, to say, 'You know what, I'm going to give myself one more shot at this, and I really have to do it as well as I can do it this time.' And that is the only thing that will impact people. And that's what I'm doing. And I'm totally terrified out of my mind!"
Lively's site had some tough competition from other lifestyle brands including Jessica Alba's "The Honest Company," Gwyneth Paltrow's "Goop," and Reese Witherspoon's "Draper James.'
In the meantime, Lively said she will face her haters by having her assistant play Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off," admitting that it "feels really good to listen to it on a loop!"
