Handling Relationships in the Public Spotlight
On her podcast, Sadie Robertson Huff also talked to Jinger Duggar Vuolo about how “confusing and weird” it was for them as young women to receive marriage proposals from strangers. “There are a lot of people, especially in the faith-based community, [who] feel like they are supposed to marry you,” said Huff. “[Or] their mom is convinced that you were the one for their son.”
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The two women also discussed how Vuolo met Jeremy—and what he had to go through to receive Jim Bob Duggar’s approval. A 50-page questionnaire covered every aspect of Jeremy’s life, and he even went on a mission trip to El Salvador to get to know Vuolo better. Later, the pair worked through differences in their beliefs so they could enter marriage on a united front.
When Huff asked about the best advice Vuolo has received, Vuolo said a friend advised them to “ask each other if there’s something on your heart or something that you want to talk about” before going to bed each night. That allows for deeper conversations than merely asking, “How was your day?”
Beyond People-Pleasing: Finding Grace in Motherhood
Jinger Duggar Vuolo, whose new book is titled “People Pleaser: Breaking Free From the Burden of Imaginary Expectations,” said freedom and grace replace turmoil when you stop worrying about other people’s opinions of you. Both she and Sadie Robertson Huff said they struggled with eating disorders as teens—and then struggled with what people thought of them when they became wives and moms.
While in the hospital to deliver her first child, Huff said, she realized she wanted things to go a certain way because “I cared about what people thought of me.” Vuolo said when she and Jeremy moved to Los Angeles, she felt “like I was just performing all the time.”
Even the pressure to maintain a tidy house can get in the way of genuine friendships, Vuolo noted. She recalled feeling mortified when fellow moms stopped by, feeling like “I just didn’t have it all together.” Huff and Vuolo concluded by discussing the isolating nature of image management.
“It’s just beautiful when you’re walking in freedom,” Huff said, because “it gives people the gift to be free themselves, and you’re walking in your originality. It gives people the gift to be original themselves and feel celebrated for that, [and it] opens the door for true relationship and growth.”
