Binkies and Briefcases

Disclosure: For your convenience, this post contains Amazon affiliate links to the products mentioned. 

If you have been following my blog for any length of time, you might know that Kristen Bell is my favorite actress. I even wrote a post about it way back in October of 2013, before Frozen was on anyone’s radar. I love her lots. 

So last week when I got an email invitation to participate in a conference call with THE KRISTEN BELL and a few other bloggers so that we could interview her about some of her upcoming projects, naturally, I jumped at the chance.

Yes, last Friday I spent an hour on the phone with Kristen Bell trying to act like I get to spend an hour talking to my favorite celebrity every day. No one even mentioned the fact that we were speaking to a real-life Disney princess. We had more important things to talk about.  

This call was about a project Kristen is doing in collaboration with This Bar Saves Lives, which is a company that sells food and other products. For every food item you buy, a packet of life-saving food is given to a child in need. Kristen has been working with them since they launched the company, and has now helped to design their latest product- an insulated tote bag. For every bag that is sold, they provide a life-saving malaria treatment to someone in need.

I was really excited and kind of in awe that I had been given this opportunity. I knew there would be several other bloggers participating in this phone call, so I didn’t know how much I would actually get to speak with Kristen. 

If you had the opportunity to ask your favorite actress one question, what would it be? 

This is what I chose to ask Kristen Bell: 

How has going through the childbirth process in a developed country given you a different perspective on wanting to get medical care to impoverished areas? 

And this is what she said: 

“I think we were put on this planet to take care of the little guy. When I realized that, my life gained so much more purpose.” She talked about how becoming a mother had changed her perspective and how she was grateful to have the opportunity to have the emergency c-section she needed in her most recent birth experience and ended with, “It should start with mothers taking care of mothers.” 

Later in the call I also asked what her favorite flavor is, of those available from This Bar Saves Lives. Kristen said she really likes to leave the Madagascar Vanilla Almond & Honey on the dashboard of her car and eat it warm because it reminds her of a rice cereal treat.  

Here are some of the questions that other bloggers asked on the conference call and how Kristen responded.

On being a mom:

Q: What has been the biggest difference going from one to two children?

Kristen: That there are TWO children!

On why she is partnering with This Bar Saves Lives: 

“I like Shopping, but I also like sharing!” Kristen went on to elaborate that the statistics that she has seen say that there are over 200 million people worldwide suffering from malaria. “I’m not a doctor or a scientist…but this seems like a solvable issue.” The sales from new tote bag Kristen has helped to design will focus on malaria treatments, while the sales from the bars will continue to fight hunger. 

So far, through the sales from their bar program, This Bar Saves Lives has donated more than 350,000 Plumpy’Nut packages to Save The Children to fight hunger in countries throughout the world. 

On the best advice she has been given that she can pass on to other mothers: 

“If both children are crying, go to the toddler first.” Kristen explained that this small action helps her older daughter know that she is still a priority while there is a newborn in the house and it won’t hurt the baby to delay just a few seconds.

She also said that she and Dax are “paying attention to the narrative about how we speak about the baby.” They try to ask Lincoln, their older daughter, for her opinion on things like why she thinks the baby might be crying or if she thinks it is time for a diaper change.   

On the adorable Samsung commercials with her husband, Dax Shepard: 

Kristen said that these commercials are “embarrassingly close” to their real life and that Dax actually wrote the majority of both and pitched the idea for the second one based on what their life was like around the holidays- being obsessed with decorations.

On the Super Bowl (which hadn’t happened yet at the time of the interview):

Kristen was embarrassed to admit “I don’t even know who’s playing!” She’s been a little busy, after all. Her newest arrival, Delta, is only a month old. 

On if she feels pressure to look good on the red carpet: 

“Of course! Because I’m human…I still have about 18 pounds from the baby.” Kristen continued, “I chose to look at that as ‘I did something extraordinary.’ I will work to get back in shape, but I will do it at my body’s pace.” Kristen said that while she is postpartum she likes to chose styles that might be different than what she would normally wear, but that flatter her and make her feel good. “That make me feel beautiful.” She also said that she strongly dislikes the pressure that we as a society place on “mothers to not look like mothers” immediately after they have given birth because it diminishes what they have just accomplished.  

On balancing work and home life: 

“Be wherever you are.” Kristen said that she tries very hard to leave work at work and focus on her children while she is home and to be 100% present while she is on the set. 

On whether she insists on buying fair trade products in real life: 

“Without question, to the point of annoyance of my family members. I’ll make us hit two or three stores. I believe that every dollar is a vote, and they are MY dollars, so it’s very important to me to spend them how I see fit.”

On the No Kids Policy:

Kristen and Dax started a campaign in early 2014 to make people pay attention to the way that the media treats the children of celebrities. The No Kids Policy is simply a policy in which media outlets would agree not to publish photographs of children without their parent’s permission. In this case, the parents happen to be celebrities. Kristen said she is excited to see how much traction the No Kids Policy has already received and that it is already starting to make a difference in the way that some media outlets respond to children. Kristen says that the next phase of the policy will be a website and that she is hoping to be able to find an easy way to inform consumers about which publications are participating in the No Kids Policy so that they can make informed decisions at the newsstands.

On what’s next for her:

“Well, right now, the left breast.” (She was breastfeeding Delta.)