Nikki Reed On Motherhood & Balancing Work With Family: Interview

Nikki Reed & Ian Somerhalder — Image Credit: REX/Shutterstock

Motherhood is admittedly the greatest thing Nikki Reed has ever known. It’s a love so deep that it changed the Twilight actress, 31, forever. And, after she and husband Ian Somerhalder, 40, welcomed their first child — a daughter named Bodhi Soleil Reed Somerhalder — in July of 2017, that’s when Nikki began saying “no” to things that were not allowing her to be as present with her daughter as she would have liked.

“I think taking the time to really be present is important. It’s about learning that it’s okay for things to go unanswered for five minutes,” the actress told HollywoodLife of accepting that time will not stop if she focuses on her daughter instead of hitting send on an email. “Put down your email, set down the camera, put away the phone,” Nikki said, before she explained that “going for a drive or a walk with your child where you don’t have a million things going on” is one way that she disconnects to be present in the moment.

Another thing motherhood has taught Nikki, is the art of balance, although it’s a marathon, not a sprint. “You know, balance is a dance. It’s not a destination, right?”, she said, explaining, “It’s a continual dance that we are all navigating. We live in a very busy time and we all have a lot of things we’re passionate about and things that get us up in the morning that make us feel inspired. And, you don’t want to give up any of those things. But, I think we all relate in that we all wish we could just slow down a little bit… It’s a dance.”

As Nikki continues to remain present and put motherhood at the forefront, along with her marriage — none of that has taken away from her drive and passion for her work. Nikki founded the company, BaYou with Love, which creates 14-18 karat gold jewelry collections designed by the actress. The pieces are all recycled gold, most of which are from used technology. She is also a proud advisor for Raised Real — a plant-based baby food delivery service that made a positive impact on her own life after it changed the way her daughter ate.

“I think one thing that all of us who are really ambitious people struggle with is the desire to be so on top of everything and get back to everybody immediately and do everything on time,” Nikki admitted. But, with her own style of balancing it all, she’s finally figured it out.

“One thing that being a parent has really taught me to do is learn that there’s nothing more important than spending time with your child. Nothing is more important than giving them some form of yourself,” Nikki continued. “So, everything else can actually wait and everyone’s going to be okay. And, once I think I adopted that mentality a little bit, I learned that everything and everyone’s going to be okay.”

Speaking of okay, Nikki is more than okay with her new advisor position with Raised Real, a partnership she said came naturally. “I was just a genuine fan of the company and a customer myself and really fell in love with the product,” she said. “I felt so inspired by not just the product but the story behind the product. And, once I started sort of diving in a little deeper and researching, I felt like the company was really morally aligned with so much of my philosophy and approach to parenting and lifestyle.”