Alexa PenaVega is opening up about her journey in Hollywood — and her journey away from the entertainment capital, too.

The former Spy Kids star and her husband, Big Time Rush alum Carlos PenaVega (she was Alexa Vega, he was Carlos Pena — they combined their last names) happily live with their children on the island of Maui now. They moved to Hawaii several years ago after the former child star, now 33 years old, and her 32-year-old husband realized they were done with Los Angeles!

Related: Why ‘Lost’ Star Matthew Fox Walked Away From Hollywood — And Is Coming Back!

Now, the couple has a new memoir, entitled What If Love Is The Point?, which was released on Tuesday. While promoting the spiritual self-help book, Alexa spoke to Fox News Digital on Wednesday about their relationship, the family’s faith, and their reason for leaving Tinseltown. In the interview, PenaVega first reflected on falling in love with Carlos. He came to her at a time in life when she wasn’t looking for a relationship — and especially not one with another actor! But he just proved to be everything she needed!

The Spy Kids star recalled:

“I had come right out of divorce and felt that I needed to realign my life. … I wasn’t looking for any kind of relationship other than the relationship I had with my faith. Instead, I wanted to create an awesome community around me that can hold me accountable. I showed up to bible study and I met Carlos. I just wanted to be friends… I didn’t want anybody in the entertainment industry. No actors, no singers… He was everything on my no list. And everything on my no list was everything I never knew I needed. It was the person who could help fill in all the gaps that I was missing in my life. That was Carlos.”

Awww! Why was she looking to avoid “industry” types?

In their book, both Carlos and Alexa are frank about some of the struggles they experienced regarding bad influences and difficult situations in the entertainment business.

Criticizing the culture in Hollywood, Alexa explained to Fox:

“A lot of times in the industry, we like to push boundaries for the sake of pushing boundaries. But it doesn’t necessarily help the story. It doesn’t add anything more to the story other than pushing boundaries. So I don’t do projects like that anymore. I’m focused on the redemption side of stories. I don’t want to just make Christian movies. I don’t think that helps the world and I want to touch the world. I want to find more worldly content if that makes sense. So I would say the industry impacted me because I had to do a switch as far as what I would take and what my boundaries were.”

Inneresting!

Ironically, it wasn’t Alexa who initially wanted to move out of El Lay, but Carlos. The former starlet recalled how her husband was falling just short of role after role in the industry — and the constant rejection was wearing on him.

So, she explained, he was the first one to push for the move to their more rural digs. And she didn’t really want to do it early on!! But once they got there, things changed quickly.

Alexa recalled how her faith moved things along right when she needed it:

“Carlos was really struggling with the industry. Every audition he went on, it would get down between him and one other guy and the other guy would always get it. The rejection was just becoming too much for him. This went on for a full year. At the time, I was pregnant. We’d always talked about moving to Hawaii, but later on in life, like a retirement plan. But we also knew that we didn’t want to raise our kids in Los Angeles. I felt this tug in my heart. I felt it was God going, ‘You guys need to get out of here. It’s time.’ I didn’t want to move. I knew it was the right decision, but it wasn’t something that I was so excited about.”

She looks back fondly on El Lay in some ways. But not all!

Alexa recalled how her Christian faith came into play through the process of moving out of Los Angeles:

“I loved LA. I loved my career, and I didn’t want to go. At the time, I felt like we were moving for Carlos. But one day I was praying in my car and I suddenly had this revelation. I felt like God was preparing us for this move. And we weren’t moving for Carlos. We were moving for my heart. It stopped me in my tracks because all that time, I thought we were just moving for Carlos. But I needed a heart reset.”

Her identity eventually had gotten so tied up in her career that she realized it was best to take a major step back.

Reflecting on how that journey took her family out to the islands, PenaVega revealed:

“I was the one trapped in the entertainment world and needed to take a step back. My job became my identity. God pulled me out of that so I could learn how to be an awesome mom and an awesome wife. God helped us build that foundation in our family. And once I had that revelation, I felt at peace.”

And it sounds like the move was worthwhile!

Alexa explained that the family’s new community in Maui has proven to be exceptionally open and welcoming. Calling out El Lay as being jaded (yeah, no kidding, girl), PenaVega explained to the news org:

“The Maui culture is about family, about community. I think that’s something that was getting lost when we were living in Los Angeles. I will say Los Angeles is a place that offers you a lot of opportunities. But it doesn’t necessarily have a family culture. You move there to work and make it. For us, we wanted to get out of that because we were ready to be part of a community that shared our faith. And we found that in Hawaii. … I don’t know, I feel like LA is so jaded. But here, in Hawaii, people are just living.”

Well then!

What do U think of this former child star moving out of Tinseltown, Perezcious readers?? Share your reactions and opinions down in the comments (below)…

[Image via Alexa PenaVega/Instagram]

The post <i>Spy Kids</i> Star Alexa PenaVega Explains Why She Ditched Hollywood For Hawaii: 'God Pulled Me Out' appeared first on Perez Hilton.