Jessica Alba Reveals That Puberty Equals Therapy For Her Daughters

Parenting doesn't come with a manual, and mom of three, actress Jessica Alba, is just like the rest of us who parent pre-teens and teenagers. When her two oldest children, daughters Honor, 14, and Haven, 10, hit the moody and unpredictable pre-teen years, Alba knew she had to step in and get some help.

Alba, 41, along with husband film producer, Cash Warren are also parents to son Hayes, 4. The actress has been open with the fact that she has attended therapy with her oldest daughter in the past, and is now discussing starting therapy with her middle child. She explained to Glamour magazine how therapy has affected their mother/daughter relationship and just what made her think therapy was a necessity for them.

"I went with both of them. And around puberty is when it's the time I think, for me, with my girls," she said. She explained that around the age that puberty began for the girls is when they began shutting her out, which is typically a normal reaction that most parents can relate to when those teen hormones begin to show up. "That's when they started to sort of shut down and get really like, 'I don't want to talk anymore.' And I'm like, 'We're not doing this. We've got to keep a line of communication here. How can I be a better parent to you? How do you want me to talk to you? Don't shut me out,'" she explained.

Alba explained why going to therapy would be beneficial for her and her daughters, so they would be on board with the idea. "First of all, this person [the therapist] has studied human behavior and they're good at it. And they have no relation to you so they can be really objective and you create a safe space for your kid to really candidly tell you what's not working about your parenting. I was like, 'Look, I'm not perfect. I'm not going to know all the answers, but I want to be a great parent to you. And what you like and don't is different from what your sister likes and doesn't like. And I'm going to make mistakes," she explained. "Here's a safe space, you can't get in trouble."

Alba's parenting journey has been documented for all to see on her social media pages. All three of her kids appear in a lot of The Honest Company's brand imagery, as sometimes on her YouTube channel. In a video posted in April, Haven interviews her parents for a video titled, "The Most Cringeworthy Parenting Questions," where she candidly asks her parents where they met, how Warren won Alba over, things that they've done in their lives that would surprise her, their dreams as children, and other questions on her mind. And of course, in true "child" fashion, she manages to tease her parents every chance she got along the way.

Alba is a big fan of meditation and taking care of her mental health. As the co-founder of The Honest Company, a wellness and beauty brand that creates clean, sustainable products without harmful toxins, she's learned to trust her gut more in her business. "It's interesting because trusting my intuition or my gut, I felt like I had to validate it, because it's hard to validate a feeling," she said. "That's hard to do, especially when you've never been in that situation before."