HGTV “Good Bones” star Mina Starsiak Hawk has a full plate these days. The renovation expert is busy raising her 4-month-old daughter, Charlotte “Charlie,” and son Jack, 2, gearing up to release her first children’s book and working on the sixth season of “Good Bones.”
In an interview with TODAY, the mother of two talked about a top-secret project she worked on, why she uses her Instagram account to get candid about motherhood — including her decision to get a tummy tuck — and who watches her daughter on set while she films her hit show.
To ensure Charlie and the crew are safe on the “Good Bones” set during the pandemic, everyone is assigned a COVID-19 supervisor responsible for making sure protocols are enforced. She revealed that her supervisor pulled double-duty.
“Our COVID guy is working way under what he is qualified to do,” she shared. The TV star said he is “trained, high-level, like sniper.” She added, “A lot of times when I would come to set and bring Charlie and she wasn't technically born yet in the show, he would just hold her.”
Starsiak Hawk said at the time, she had “just met him.” However, she figured if he could handle “being in battle,” he could handle her baby. “It was so sweet him just hanging out with this newborn baby, all muscled out.”
With production stretching into March and her daughter nearby on set, Starsiak Hawk stated she’s not sure if her daughter will make it into one of the episodes. However, viewers will get a sneak peek inside her nursery.
“We filmed the changeover from Jack's to Charlie's,” she said. “They'll get to see the nursery, but just not with her in it.”
As for design elements viewers can expect to see when season six returns this summer, the HGTV star explained, “I think right now a big thing that is coming back that I don't know if anyone saw is blond wood. We've installed blond wood cabinets in a couple of homes now.”
“Good Bones” isn’t the only show Starsiak Hawk has in the works for this year. In December, she teased fans with an Instagram story about a top-secret project she was working on. Even though she can’t release too much information, she talked about some details of the project.
“It’s fun. It’s getting to work with some other HGTV talent, it's still in the network. And it's always fun to get outside of our bubble here in Indy and see what’s going on elsewhere and be part of it.”
Starsiak Hawk said to expect an announcement about the project in late February.
The professional home rehabber is taking her talents off screen as well with the release of her first children’s book, “Built Together,” releasing Feb. 2.
“I think it was just having Jack,” she shared of her inspiration for jumping into the book world. “It's fun, it's playful, you don't have to be super serious.”
The book, available for preorder now, takes her love of construction and her life experiences to help shape the message that like houses, no two families look exactly alike. “I have ex-stepparents, I have ex-stepsiblings, I have friends that are closer than some family members,” she revealed. “You are born with family, but you also make your family.”
Barbara Bongini illustrated the book and created characters to resemble Starsiak Hawk’s family, including herself, her son, her husband, Steve, and her brother, Tad. Charlie won’t have her own character because the book was written before they found out the soon-to-be children’s author was pregnant.
“At that point, we didn't think we could have any more kids,” she expressed. “I feel terrible that she's not in it.”
She added that she was able to update the dedication page to include Charlie in it during the final approval process and promises to make it up to her daughter by featuring her in another book.
In addition to spotlighting diversity through her book, the famous mom is also using her voice to bring attention to topics that aren’t often talked about, especially revolving around parenthood. Starsiak Hawk has openly shared her infertility struggle and the rounds of IVF she underwent to have her daughter.
“When I started posting about the IVF and infertility, I just got so many messages of people saying, ‘Thank you so much, people don’t talk about this, especially quote-unquote celebrities.’”
She also opened up in a lengthy, multi-image Instagram post following the birth of her daughter about how she doesn’t want to portray a false sense of perfection when it comes to motherhood.
Part of the post read, “I take pride in showing the REAL me on social media when so many people just show the pretty, happy, perfect version.”
In the same post, she shared with her followers the pressure she felt to love her postpartum body and her decision for wanting cosmetic surgery after giving birth a second time.
“I don’t lovingly embrace my post baby body, particularly my scar and the lovely ‘shelf’ that comes along with it,”she wrote. “It doesn’t remind me of my ability to grow a life for 10 months and then birth it…. my amazing kids do that! It reminds me that I was cut open and put back together in a way that doesn’t feel like me.”
Since that post, Starsiak Hawk underwent the surgery, where she had a tummy tuck, liposuction and breast implants.
“I feel great,” she shared. “I feel like myself again.”
Starsiak Hawk recognizes that even though everyone might not agree with her decisions, she hopes people can learn to be more accepting of others’ choices.
“I think there's definitely something to having your own thought process, in your own opinion, and then also being able to accept someone else's. And that be OK.”