As Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar's kids are growing up and starting lives and families of their own, some of them aren't choosing to follow in their parents' footsteps – and it seems Joy-Anna Duggar wants to make that perfectly clear. During a recent YouTube vlog where she answered fan questions, Joy talked about what it was like to grow up in the spotlight and how that now that she's an adult, she doesn't want to be "lumped in" with her 18 siblings the way she has been in the past — especially after the backlash she's been dealing with online.
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Joy's new vlog covered a lot of ground.
After opening up her Instagram account to questions from her followers, Joy compiled them to answer in this video.
The questions were all over the map, with fans asking everything from what book she was reading to how she was feeling after becoming a mom to baby Gunner last year.
But one question seemed to strike a chord more than others.
She talked about the ups and downs of living in the spotlight.
She called hearing people's opinions about her life "annoying" because though they think they know her from social media and TV, they don't actually know her.
At one point, things got so bad that she actually engaged in a conversation with someone who claimed Joy's family still wanted to "control" her, no matter how many times she tried to convince the person that wasn't the case.
She wanted to make it clear that she is her 'own person.'
"I am my own person. I have my own opinions," she said. "I wish people would get to know me for me and not for my whole family, if that makes sense. I am an individual, not being lumped together as a whole family, but like, getting to know each one of my siblings individually."
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She also got real about her postpartum experience.
Joy admitted that mentally, her postpartum experience with Gunner has been harder than it was with older kids Gideon and Evelyn, even saying that as recently as a few months ago, she felt "like my world is crumbling around me."
Fortunately, at this point, she said she's doing "well overall."
It's good to hear that Joy is doing better.
It can't be easy to go through all of the phases of life that she has with an audience, but she's doing a good job — especially as she raises three children in the middle of it all.
So far, it appears she's doing things differently than her parents did, so maybe it is time to get to know her independently of her famous family.
