Taylor Strecker Always Wanted a Reality Show—‘House of Stassi’ Was Worth the Wait
Jane LaCroix
Taylor Strecker has spent years behind the microphone (Taste of Taylor, anyone?), but stepping in front of reality TV cameras for House of Stassi brought a whole new level of vulnerability. Joining Amanda Hirsch on Not Skinny But Not Fat, Strecker opens up about everything from finally seeing herself on screen to navigating parenthood with her wife, Taylor Donohue (aka Teddy), and why she considers herself “Dad” to their six-month-old daughter. Elsewhere in the convo, she talks about her GLP-1 journey, body image, friendship, and what surprised her most about filming a reality series after wanting to do one for years.
Here are the highlights from the conversation, adapted from the episode.
You’ve been open about taking a GLP-1. Has it changed more than just your weight?
“I don’t know if this is scientifically proven, but this is my science. It makes my brain better. I’m nicer to myself…I used to wake up in the morning since I was in high school, and it was like, ‘What am I eating? What are my calories for the day? What’s my point system,’ because I did Weight Watchers, the OG version back in the day, but it was always that I was writing notes down…it was just exhausting…
…But there’s also an anxiety that I just had, like, a low base always that I didn’t really realize was a thing until I went on this, and I’m like, ‘Wait, I feel less crazy,’ and I’m on crazy pills, OK? I am a crazy lady, but I when I’m off the shot, it’s not even about hunger. My wife’s like, you’re acting a little nuts again. I get obsessive.”
How long did it actually take to get ‘House of Stassi’ made?
“I remember talking about it four years ago. I think we were on tour, and we were around their island in their kitchen, and Stassi’s, ‘but should I go back?’ And we’re like, ‘Yeah.’ She’s like, ‘Well, I want it to be about this,’ and we’re like ‘About this?’ She’s like, ‘Yeah, us, you guys, we worked together,’ and I was like, you know me, I’m salivating, drooling—get a mop, there’s a puddle on the ground. I’m like, ‘Let’s do it.’ But it takes so long for this sh*t to happen…We do a sizzle [sizzle reel], and then they go to production companies, and then it’s like, ‘OK, they’re interested. Now we do another sizzle.’ There’s a lot of shooting. I feel like we shot a pilot episode.”
What did your wife think when reality TV first entered the picture?
“So she was always kind of like, ‘I’m private. That’s not my bag. I’m behind the scenes. I’m not interested. I’m scared.’ She also doesn’t watch it, so she was scared of the idea of it. But she stopped working in tech, and now she runs our business…But I think it helped her realize, ‘Oh, we should be doing things like this.’ So I think that’s what changed her idea of reality television…It’s so annoying. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’m over here for 20 years grinding my ass, and she floats in…She’s a natural. She’s beautiful, she’s blonde, annoying.”
Why do you call yourself “Dad” instead of “Mom”?
“I’d say my mom and my mother-in-law are the most annoyed by it. They’re like, ‘Stop with the dad.’ I’ve had some friends too who refuse. They’re like, ‘I’m not calling you a dad.’…[My daughter is] six months and change, so we’re entering the ‘Mommy, dad da da ba ba ba’ phase…Taylor is ‘mama,’ which, so I’m ‘mommy,’ which I love for the future, but she can’t say ‘mommy,’ so I’m ‘dada’ for now just because I just need to feel like she loves me. But here’s the thing with the ‘dada’ of it all. It is a nod to how much I respect my wife and you and Stassi and all of my friends who are moms because I don’t deserve a mom title because if I was a mom, I’d be a very bad mom. But as a dad, I’m f**king phenomenal.”
Do you ever wish you had carried the pregnancy yourself?
“No…I don’t want to carry. My uterus is upside down. Nothing is growing in there. They were basically like, ‘So who’s gonna carry?’ And I was like, ‘Taylor Donohue, not me, not me…’ And so they were like, ‘Well, we’re gonna sweep both of you,’ you know what I mean…and then they went to mine, and they were like, ‘Good thing you don’t want to carry because you have cobwebs.’ So it’s not, I don’t even think we could try if I was dying to.”
Were you nervous about filming while Teddy was 31 weeks pregnant?
“It ended up being a little bit more delayed than we originally expected. So we were really freaking out. Tay was not OK…she was a sport. She was such a good sport. She’s just so easy breezy beautiful cover girl…I made it for birth, but I was white knuckling it really to the last because of production stuff.”
How do you think Stassi has changed?
“I have seen such a change in her. She is just, Stassi 2.0. She’s the best version of herself I’ve ever seen. She’s really grounded now. She’s way more empathetic, and she’s much more thoughtful. Knee-jerk reactive slap Stassi is gone. The dark passenger still lives inside of her body, but I just see her take pauses now. She really thinks things through. I think she learned that it’s important to listen. And to observe and take people’s experiences in. I think before she was very quick to judge…but she’s more compassionate for sure.”
Were you worried you guys would fight on the show?
“I’m always worried about, well, just from watching reality television, I would be an idiot to not think that something could happen. Someone could try to do it for a story. And one of my favorite things that Stassi and I don’t fight, but I’ll tell you this: being on a reality TV show is like being in family therapy. And a producer told me this: ‘If you think it, say it,’ which is very hard for me. Not that I’m fake, I’m just a puss. So I just bury my feelings…So I think that the show brought us even closer together because it actually forced me to say things to her that maybe I wouldn’t in the past have brought up normally.”
What did you think after watching the season back?
“The first time we were watching it, we were almost just holding our breath the whole time. But then the second time I watched it, I was like, ‘Oh, that’s actually us.’ I think I was worried that I was going to watch it and be like, ‘Who is that person?’ But I actually felt like, ‘Oh no, that’s me.’ I was really relieved because I felt like I was myself.”
To hear the full conversation, listen to Not Skinny but Not Fat wherever you get your podcasts.
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