Fans Don't Seem To Care About Joanna Gaines' Education

Summary

• Joanna Gaines, despite lacking formal design education, has garnered immense success with Fixer Upper and a net worth of $25 million.
• Fans adore Joanna's design skills and connection on Fixer Upper, showcasing her talent with renovations and redecorating homes.
• Despite criticism for her lack of design education, Joanna's popularity and success with Fixer Upper have continued to grow.

Joanna Gaines does not have a degree or any other kind of education in design, but it is not a problem that appears to bother fans who support her, as well as her Magnolia Network show, Fixer Upper (formerly on HGTV).

Despite this lack of training in the field, Gaines has found immense success as a central part of the home design and renovation reality TV series that first debuted in May 2013. As part of this success, she has managed to amass an estimated net worth of $25 million as of 2024.

Fixer Upper has been a joint venture between Joanna Gaines and her husband Chip since the beginning. The pair also raise five kids together, away from the glare of the television cameras. But is it this diverse lifestyle that has endeared her so much to fans that they don’t care about her education?

Joanna Gaines Has A Degree In Communications

On Fixer Upper, Joanna Gaines is seen as a talented and skilled designer who not only co-hosts the show alongside Chip. She also brings her expertise to conceptualize ideas for renovation and redecoration of homes and other property.

Various Home Improvement TV Show Hosts, and Their Education Background

Despite this, Gaines has yet to undertake any kind of formal education within the field of design. In fact, she took her graduate studies at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, where she graduated with a degree in Communications in 2001.

Gaines was born in Wichita, Kansas, in April 1978, as the middle child in a family of three daughters. According to her IMDb page, her family moved to Texas while she was still young, and she grew up in the Lone Star state, where she has continued to live in her adulthood.

Gaines’ time at Baylor overlapped with that of her future husband Chip, who himself graduated from the Baptist school in 1998 with a Bachelor of Business Administration. They did not, however, actually meet back then.

Joanna Gaines has an impressive net worth of $50 million.

It wasn’t until the year of Joanna Gaines’ (then Stevens) graduation that they met… away from the school. Two years later–in 2003–the pair walked down the aisle. She joined Chip’s home refurbishment business, and their decade-long journey towards Fixer Upper began.

Joanna Gaines’ Fans Don’t Think Her Lack Of Education In Design Affects Her Work

If education was a measure of how good a person can do a job, Joanna Gaines would have not lasted long doing what she does on Fixer Upper. Yet, after that first episode in 2013, she and Chip would preside over a total of 79 episodes, over the course of five seasons running up to April 2018.

The show has also spawned a number of spin-off productions, including Fixer Upper: Welcome Home, Fixer Upper: The Castle and Fixer Upper: The Hotel. For supporters of Gaines and her work, this success is to be expected, despite the fact that she didn’t undertake any studies in the world of design.

To demonstrate this unrelenting support for the Gaines family, one fan even flew all the way from Australia to LA to witness the Magnolia Market and its famous landmark silos owned by Joanna and Chip.

Another commented about Gaines on social media, saying, “This Joanna woman has great taste in furnishings.” A response in support of this view read: “Exactly what I was thinking. Joanna has a magical touch for making design and function flow.”

Are There Fans Who Question Joanna Gaines’ Failure To Study Design?

Joanna Gaines can clearly travel around the world and still find adoring fans, such is the breadth of the love that they have for her. In this era of social and other new media, however, it is almost impossible to find dissenting voices on any topic.

Unsurprisingly, Gaines has found herself having to cope with naysayers as well. This group, unlike her loyal followers, does not appear to comprehend what qualifies her to offer insight into something as critical to people as home design.

This train of thought can mostly be found on Reddit. In one thread where a user was in fact taking aim at Flip or Flop’s Christina Hall and her lack of education, Gaines received stray fire for the same reasons as well.

“This woman knows nothing about interior design. The fact [that] people with no design background get shows on HGTV is mind boggling. Move over to Bravo,” the original post read. In response, another user said: “You could say the same thing about Joanna Gaines and many other HGTV hosts. She and Chip started out as flippers, she has no formal design education, and you can’t hire her.”

Joanna And Chip Gaines’ Starred In Fixer Upper: The Lakehouse In 2024

In May 2024, the Magnolia Network released a new trailer on YouTube for yet another Fixer Upper series. This time, it was titled The Lakehouse, with Joanna and Chip Gaines working to renovate the titular property, which they also own.

The lakehouse is described on House Beautiful as an “outdated midcentury modern residence near Lake Waco.” The couple purchased the home specifically for the production, as they celebrated the 10th anniversary of Fixer Upper. The Lakehouse premiered on June 2, 2024, and ran for six episodes within a fortnight.

Gaines and her partner Chip faced backlash from the public for this particular iteration of their series. Some people felt that it was a bit tone deaf for the pair to make a show about their own house.

One unimpressed fan commented on the trailer clip on YouTube, saying, “I don’t like watching HGTV personalities renovating their own luxury 2nd or 3rd homes. It looks like they’re showing off.” Another bemoaned the lack of easy access to the Magnolia Network programming on Discovery Plus: “Are they still around? Since you have to pay to watch, I've lost interest.”