Bad news 'Preserve' fans, Blake Lively is shutting down the lifestyle site, which was launched only a year ago.
In an interview with Vogue, the 28-year-old actress explains the site "never caught up to its original mission."
"It's not making a difference in people's lives, whether superficially or in a meaningful way. 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!'" she tells the magazine. "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?"
Currently, everything on Preserve (from objects to home decor, accessories and clothing) are on sale, to prepare for the site's Oct. 9th closure. Lively intends to rebuild, rebrand and eventually reveal (on her own timeline) what her project was always meant to be.
"It’s very exciting and it’s also incredibly scary," the mother-of-one says of the closure. "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.'"
Blake's dissatisfaction with the site is no surprise, however. Back in June, the former "Gossip Girl" star told Time magazine she was not happy with how the site turned out.
"People hacked into our site a week and a half before it was meant to launch, so the site leaked," she said. "The site's not close to what I want it to be...If I had my dream, I'd put it on hold for six months or a year and then relaunch it."
And while she realizes there will be backlash for the closure, she's willing to face it for the integrity of the brand.
"I know what it'll look like, what I'm facing publicly, that people are just going to have a heyday with this. 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," she explains.
"I'm going to take this hit, and the only way I can prove all the negative reactions wrong is to come back with a plan that will rock people. And I have that plan. And 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.'"
Also on HuffPost
