Fans who have followed Whitney Thore over the years will know that the reality TV star is fearless in all things she does. After going viral on social media, Whitney became the center of her own TLC show, My Big Fat Fabulous Life, which showed her managing everything from her passion for dance to some of the rocky relationships in her life.

Whitney has been living in the world of reality TV for quite some time now—in fact, she recently finished filming the whopping 13th season of her show. Now that she’s reached a major milestone in her life, she’s opened up about what might be her biggest life decision yet—that of becoming a parent.

Whitney Chose To Conceive Via A Sperm Donor

Longtime viewers of My Big Fat Fabulous Life will know that a major concern of Whitney’s throughout the season was that of her family. On top of being particularly close with her mother, she was always thinking about what her future family would look like, and episodes often focus on her relationship status. (By her own admission, she’s been through more than one heartbreak after falling for the wrong man.)

As Whitney welcomed her 41st birthday, however, the idea of family started to look a little different to her. The reality TV star opened up to E! News about how, throughout the filming of the 13th season, her mind began to drift towards the thought of having a baby. She shared with the outlet how entering the new decade in her life pushed her to really consider becoming a mother, regardless of whether she had a partner by her side to do so.

Whitney explained how one of the most challenging parts of this process was the “extreme version of decision fatigue” that she experienced when it came to selecting her sperm donor:

Whitney was honest in explaining that she could be quite picky when it came to weeding out candidates. “It doesn’t take a whole lot for me to go, ‘Oh, never mind, and then there was a question-and-answer section and they almost seemed illiterate. And I was like, ‘No, I can’t,'” she teased.

In the end, Whitney decided to delegate the task altogether, and she had her friend Isaiah be the one to make the final decision. “I honestly could not handle the responsibility,” she said. “I think I would still be trying to choose a donor if I was really shouldering that responsibility,” she added.

Whitney Is Confident She Wants To Be A Mother

Though the choice of sperm donor was too much for her, Whitney said she was entirely sure that she wanted to pursue parenthood. She went on to note that teaching dance lessons to young children, coupled with her biological clock ticking “louder” in her forties, made it easy for her to know what she wanted.

Whitney elaborated on how connecting with the kids she was surrounded by made her envision what it would be like to be a mother herself:

For now, Whitney’s journey to parenthood is still well underway. Viewers of the show will know that Whitney has been very open about her fertility issues; for years, she’s been battling with polycystic ovary syndrome, a hormonal disorder that has a variety of side effects—the aforementioned outlet notes that these can include weight gain, hair loss, facial hair and chronic inflammation.

Still, Whitney isn’t letting her health struggles get her down. She’s taken other measures, like freezing her eggs, but in the end, getting a sperm donor seemed like the best course of action, as the proactive reality TV star believed it would be best for her to “just try [getting pregnant] myself.” Looking ahead, she even noted that she could see herself adopting more animals and, eventually, finding Mr. Right five years down the road.

“The journey is far from over. And I’m very excited about the future,” she emphasized.