Jen Affleck is not new to sharing her ups and downs on social media, however being flipped and spun by way of the air is a brand new type of content material for the influencer and mother of three. As she spends between 5 and eight hours in a studio day-after-day getting ready to compete on Dancing With the Stars, she’s nonetheless bringing her youngsters alongside for the journey. There’s one in a stroller behind her within the background of a latest viral put up.
Everybody desires to know the way she’s coaching for the ultra-athletic competitors present Dancing With the Stars simply weeks after giving delivery in July. Fact is, she doesn’t actually know if she will be able to do it or how profitable she’ll be. She simply has to strive.
“With my second child, I ran the New York Metropolis Marathon three months postpartum,” she tells Yahoo casually. “So I believed, ‘You recognize what? If I can try this, I feel I can do that!'”
The 26-year-old first broke out as an influencer on TikTok, recognized for sharing movies of herself dancing on her kitchen counter tops. She then grew to become a part of MomTok, a bunch of younger Mormon mothers from Utah who discovered viral fame on-line and now star in Hulu’s actuality present The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.
Jen’s trajectory on the present has not been simple. The primary season featured an explosive battle along with her husband, Zac Affleck. Within the second season, they reunite after being separated, which causes stress and disappointment in her pal group. When she discovered she was pregnant along with her third youngster, the difficulties in her marriage and the drama inside MomTok compounded her prenatal melancholy. She stopped filming six episodes into the season to hunt psychological well being remedy.
It could have been simple for Jen to depart the limelight fully and revert to a life offscreen, however she’s not likely within the enterprise of taking it simple.
“I used to be a bit traumatized after Season 2, to be trustworthy. The better factor would have been to only depart [the show] and to not come again, however I undoubtedly knew that if I did not come again, I’d have regretted it for the remainder of my life,” she says.
Photograph illustration: Yahoo Information; picture: Michael Buckner/Selection by way of Getty Pictures
It was scary for her to return to Mormon Wives, however happening Dancing With the Stars, no matter what different individuals’s expectations had been for her physique, was a no brainer. She’s watched the present so long as she will be able to keep in mind. Her strikes may be TikTok-famous, however she doesn’t have any formal coaching.
“I’ve no dancing expertise moreover being Latina and simply rising up dancing … at events,” Jen says. “That’s actually the one expertise I’ve. That and dancing on counter tops.”
After only a week of ballroom observe, she was lined in bruises and blisters, shocked by how demanding the game was on her physique. She says she felt like an outdated woman. Lots of people have advised her that she shouldn’t do the present and that she ought to chill out as an alternative. However she is aware of what she wants.
“Truthfully, it’s doing what I like that helps me get out of the rut … that helps me really feel extra impressed in life,” she says. “Dancing With the Stars is filling my cup, and since I’m filling my cup, I’m capable of give extra to my youngsters, my household and the world.”
‘I am turning into a greater model of myself’
Looking for a solution to maintain melancholy at bay is what made Jen well-known within the first place. She says she was caught in her home as a stay-at-home mother when she began sharing movies of herself dancing to deal with postpartum and have enjoyable along with her youngsters. Different younger moms have re-created her posts, which she loves. From there, her influencer profession took off.
The transition from TikTok movie star to actuality TV movie star was a giant step for her.
“With social media, you’re capable of edit your self in the best way that you just need to. With actuality TV, it’s important to let that go,” she says. “It’s scary and it takes plenty of vulnerability.”
Jen Affleck (left) and the forged of Secret Lives of Mormon Wives pose for a photograph at a celebration that was featured in Season 1. (Fred Hayes/Hulu/Disney/Courtesy Everett Assortment)
That vulnerability has been good for her private progress.
“I really feel like my life on the whole hasn’t even actually modified,” she says. What actually has modified is extra consciousness to myself, my relationship, and thru that, I really feel like I am turning into a greater model of myself.”
Jen admits she’s had one “loopy second” that made her notice that she’s an precise, recognizable star, although: She met Ben Affleck and his daughter, and his daughter was an enormous fan. That’s all she may say in regards to the encounter — we’ll discover out when Secret Lives of Mormon Wives Season 3 is out on Nov. 13.
It was a momentous interplay for her. Within the present’s first season, she claimed that her husband Zac was one of many well-known actor’s cousins, however within the months that adopted, viewers questioned if that was true. It was not, which led the opposite members of MomTok to poke enjoyable at her about it, with some questioning how trustworthy an individual she could possibly be if she lied about one thing like this.
It wasn’t a deceive Jen, although — only a misunderstanding. She received into an onscreen battle with Zac about it, and he accused her of taking a household joke too severely.
“You are not gonna make me really feel silly when that is all I have been advised from your loved ones,” she says on the present.
Jen Affleck dressed as Jennifer Lopez for a fancy dress celebration throughout Season 2 of Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. (Disney)
It appears Jen is ready for a redemption arc this season. That’s not essentially her objective, although. She’s centered on letting her youngsters know “that if you happen to actually need one thing and you’ve got a dream, something’s attainable … I’ve been capable of do it with three infants.”
“I feel that’s why I’m doing every part that I’m doing — so I can present them that I did the scary factor,” she continues. “It’s daunting … being in a spot the place individuals can decide you. However I noticed the important thing to success is having the ability to cringe at your self, and likewise simply being OK with being uncomfortable.”
One other member of the Secret Lives of Mormon Wives forged, Whitney Leavitt, can also be a part of this season of Dancing With the Stars.
Jen says it’s good to have somebody to share the expertise with who’s additionally a mother of three. She couldn’t say a lot else — it’s positive to be a plot level on each of their shared actuality TV reveals — however they’ve been playfully stirring up the competitors between them by way of TikToks.
‘We’re staying humble’
When the TV and telephone cameras aren’t rolling, life is fairly regular for Jen. She nonetheless goes to the grocery retailer with out individuals bombarding her for selfies. She simply flew top notch for the primary time on her solution to New York to advertise Dancing With the Stars, and referred to as Zac from the Delta Sky Membership, burdened about whether or not or not she belonged there.
“I didn’t develop up with some huge cash … that is nonetheless bizarre for me,” she says. “I’m like, ‘Do I deserve this?’”
Her humility shines by way of a lot of our dialog. She’s not simply coy about her sudden fame — she’s humble about her dancing prowess, her athleticism and her persistence.
“They are saying keep humble or be humbled. And I am like, ‘We’re staying humble!’” she jokes.
She is wanting ahead to being onstage. It’s vindication for the time in ninth grade when she didn’t make the dance crew. Rightfully so, she admits. She didn’t have the expertise that different dancers did.
Her Dancing With the Stars associate, Jan Ravnik, is technically new to the present too — however like Jen, he’s a little bit of a social media movie star. He was considered one of Taylor Swift’s dancers on the Eras Tour. No matter how they fare within the competitors, she’ll formally be capable of say she has formal coaching.
Issues haven’t been simple for Jen, however she’s all the time been open about that. Her relentless pursuit of her goals regardless of her circumstances is one thing to be admired, whether or not she’s dancing on her desk to make her youngsters chortle or competing for the coveted Mirrorball Trophy on community TV.
