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Actress Jennifer Garner covers the March issue of Southern Living and opens up about growing up in West Virginia with her parents Patricia and William, and sisters Melissa and Susannah. She goes on to talk about family life with Ben Affleck and their three kids: Violet, 9, Seraphina, 6, and Samuel, nearly 3.

On raising her kids with a sense of community: “I feel so fortunate to have grown up in a place where people look out for each other. Community is the one thing people crave most, and it’s hard to come by. I grew up with such an excess of it that now wherever I go, the first thing I do is build my group. It’s really important for my kids to see that everyone doesn’t have the lives they see in Los Angeles. That doesn’t reflect the rest of the world. I want them to grow up with the Southern values I had–to look at people when they say hello and to stop and smell the roses. If I could do half as good a job as my mom did, I’d be pretty happy.”

On being the middle child: “Being the middle sister of these three girls is the relationship that defines me more than anything else. More than being my kids’ mother, more than being my husband’s wife, I’m first and foremost the middle Garner girl.”

On outer beauty: “We are doing this shoot so people can finally stop asking if my lips are real. What my mom did that I valued so much was to not place beauty high on the list of priorities. It was a shock when I got to college to hear people say I was pretty.”

For more from Jennifer, go to Southern Living…

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