Blake Lively: 'I'm overprotective of my family'

Blake Lively feels most "exploited" when her family are targeted.

The 28-year-old actress is a mother to daughter James, who turns 18 months on Thursday (16Jun16), with husband Ryan Reynolds, and the couple announced Blake's second pregnancy in April (16). With a growing brood, the Gossip Girl star is becoming more and more wary of her personal life facing the public glare.

"(James) looked like his (Ryan's) doppelganger for the first six months," Blake laughed to Marie Claire magazine. "She has my clammy hands! And my heavy eyelids, my meaty eyelids.

"My family: That's the thing that I feel most protective of and the thing that I feel is the most exposed when I feel exploited... All my eggs are in one basket, and that's my family. That's where my heart is. That's where my everything is."

While she doesn't like having to deal with the paparazzi snapping photos of James, Blake reasons that she and Ryan, 39, are aware of the attention that comes with their fame. However they still find it difficult, as it wasn't her decision to be in the spotlight.

Blake is the daughter of actor Ernie Lively and talent scout Elaine, and all her siblings have worked in the entertainment industry at some point. But the blonde beauty insists it wasn't her relatives that gave her the performing bug.

"I didn't want to be an actor, because they were all doing it," she explained. "When you're the youngest of five kids, you think, 'Who am I? If this is who they are, and they're shaping who I am so much, then who would I be?' You strive for your own identity."

On the topic of raising her own kids, Blake wants James and their unborn child to have the same "normal" upbringing they had, and would never be selfish in taking away the special moments they had as youngsters.