People.com Archive Picks and Pans Review: Emily Maynard Bachelorette Party By Tom Gliatto and Charlotte Triggs Charlotte Triggs Managing Editor, PEOPLE Digital People Editorial Guidelines Published on May 14, 2012 12:00 PM Share Tweet Pin Email >Wiser after her split with Brad Womack, the mom looks for love on TV again As the new Bachelorette, Emily Maynard says she’s open to finding love—as long as she doesn’t have to spend time in a Jacuzzi to do it. “I’m hoping the hot tubs have been completely phased out,” she says of the show’s notorious hook-up spot. It’s not the only Bachelor/Bachelorette staple Maynard plans on avoiding. “I don’t want to be kissing every guy,” she says. “I want to still be a lady.” After all, she adds, “I’m a mom first.” Yes, things will be a little different when Maynard, a single mother to daughter Ricki, 6, begins her Bachelorette run on May 14. Returning to the ABC franchise was the last thing Maynard, 26, expected when she accepted Texas bar owner Brad Womack’s proposal on the March 2011 Bachelor finale—and even less so when she broke things off months later. But after months of rebuffing producers, Maynard eventually changed her mind, she says, because, “I know it can work. I fell in love the first time.” While the show is currently in the headlines for who its stars haven’t been—a class action lawsuit was recently filed against the franchise alleging a bias against casting minorities—Maynard takes no issue with the program. “I would love to see a diverse Bachelor or Bachelorette,” she says. As the woman currently holding all the roses, however, Maynard says she signed on this time (with Womack’s blessing) resolved to have more fun. “I’m all about girl power. What better way to take charge than to call the shots?” While staying mum about her Bachelorette suitors, Maynard says highlights from the still-filming season include meeting Dolly Parton (“one of my idols!”) and touring London with Ricki (named after Maynard’s late fiancé, NASCAR driver Ricky Hendrick, who died in a 2004 plane crash). Another plus: Production relocated from L.A. to her Charlotte, N.C., hometown so she could stay in the three-bedroom suburban home she shares with Ricki. “[The show] has been so good at making sure there’s time scheduled for the two of us,” says Maynard, noting that Ricki’s grandparents and a nanny hired by the show are watching her when Mom has to travel solo. “She has so much fun with them.” Sometimes too much. “When I got back [from The Bachelor] I had a house full of new toys and she was drinking Coke and watching SpongeBob,” Maynard groans. While Charlotte is close to her heart, Maynard insists it won’t be a dealbreaker if her Bachelorette Mr. Right lives elsewhere. “I’m a hopeless romantic. I’d live on a sailboat in the middle of the ocean if that’s where the person I loved wanted to be.” Updated by Monica Rizzo