LOS ANGELES, CA - MARCH 17: Actrees Jessica Alba arrives at The Independent School Alliance For Minority Affairs Impact Awards Dinner - Arrivals at Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills on March 17, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images) (2015 Getty Images)
Jessica Alba is proud of other actresses who are pursuing other interests in the business world like her, but she does not want to be compared to them because of it.
Speaking to Allure magazine, the “Sin City” actress says she doesn’t see Gwyneth Paltrow, Reese Witherspoon or Blake Lively as competition and finds it “unfair” that they are lumped together when they launch their business ventures.
“People aren’t lumping Justin Timberlake and Ashton Kutcher together. They do other businesses,” she told the magazine. “I think it’s expected that when you get success in one area, you’re supposed to evolve and try to do something else – especially in business, and especially if you’re a man.
Alba, who recently was named by Forbes as one of the world’s 40 richest self-made women thanks to her Honest Company, which sells non-toxic household and baby products, said there is room for all actresses to succeed in front of the camera as well as away from Hollywood and she is proud to be among them.
“I’ve always been on my own path,” she told the magazine.
In June, Paltrow told Time magazine that sexist undertones exist and that she's “fascinated” by how the media are so “confounded by entrepreneurial women doing something outside of their box."
“Jessica, especially, who’s a friend of mine – our businesses could not be more different. There’s not a lifestyle piece to her business,” said Paltrow, who owns the lifestyle magazine/shopping website Goop. “The fundamentals of our sites are very different … People are grasping at straws to tie us together, and I get it, because it makes a good story, but I’m slightly offended by this sort of generalization that happens with myself and Jessica and Reese and Blake."
Much as Alba follows her own path outside of Hollywood, she also carefully chooses her roles.
Alba told Allure, "I never wanted to play into a stereotype, where it's like, 'Oh, you're just the girl who gets saved by the guy,' and she doesn't know how to make decisions, and she gets overwhelmed with all this stuff happening around her."
She added, "Women are freaking resilient.”
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