If the distinctive surname didn't make it obvious, Katherine Schwarzenegger is the daughter
of Arnold Schwarzenegger and his ex-wife Maria Shriver.
With parents famous for their success in acting, politics, and journalism, Katherine decided
to follow a career path as a writer.
She's actually a New York Times best-selling author with four books under her belt.
Her career began when she was just 21 years old.
In 2010, she published her first book Rock What You've Got: Secrets to Loving Your Inner
and Outer Beauty from Someone Who's Been There and Back.
Katherine explained her motivation behind the book during a November 2010 interview
on CNN, stating,
"I wanted to write it for every young girl who has times of being insecure, doubts about
her appearance, and that she feels alone.
I want them to know they're not alone."
During that interview, she was asked if being a part of a well-known family presented additional
difficulties.
She said that it didn't, emphasizing that her book is more about women in general and
has nothing to do with her celebrity pedigree.
"I think there's a huge amount of pressure on young women, in general, today in America
to be really thin and to be beautiful and look like you just walked off a runway every
single day of your life."
Katherine Schwarzenegger graduated from the University of Southern California in 2012
with a bachelor's degree.
After that, she put in work on her second book, published in 2014, titled I Just Graduated...Now
What?
The book covers topics like finding a job when the economy is struggling, establishing
a work/life balance, and managing student loan debt.
Being a recent graduate herself, she didn't just dole out advice from her own life.
Instead, she compiled insightful advice from a variety of well-known people, including
talk show host Andy Cohen, musician John Legend, actress Eva Longoria, and fellow politician's
daughter Meghan McCain.
In a 2014 interview with The Women's Eye, the author made it clear that writing the
book was about helping herself and readers.
she admitted,
"I needed all the advice I could get when I was graduating college.
I was beyond overwhelmed, anxious, excited and afraid all at the same time.
I felt like I had no idea what I was doing.
For the first time in my life, I really didn't have a plan for what was next."
Katherine struggled because she was used to having a plan for everything, which wasn't
the case immediately post-graduation.
Famous or not, that's a struggle many young adults can relate to.
Katherine Schwarzenegger switched things up with her third book in 2017.
Maverick and Me is a children's book that teaches kids about animal adoption.
The story is about a dog named Maverick, who gets abandoned on the side of the road and
ends up being adopted.
She incorporated her experiences with dog adoption and fostering to emphasize the "adopt,
don't shop" concept.
Katherine discussed the backstory of the book during a 2017 Today appearance.
She revealed that she and her sister used to take care of foster dogs in their mom's
garage, which isn't surprising since a love for animals was instilled in them at a young
age.
"Both of my parents grew up on farms, so we've always been around animals our entire life."
She described one of those dogs as a "foster failure" because she ended up loving him so
much that she kept him for herself.
That dog was Maverick, the inspiration for the book's title character.
Eventually, Katherine can read the book to her future child.
On April 25, 2020, People reported that she and her husband Chris Pratt are expecting
their first child together, joining the son Pratt already has with his ex-wife Anna Faris.
Katherine Schwarzenegger released her book The Gift of Forgiveness: Inspiring Stories
from Those Who Have Overcome the Unforgivable in March 2020.
The book is about learning how to forgive and includes first-hand stories from the author
and other people who have been able to forgive other people in their lives for seemingly
unforgivable acts.
The book features such interview subjects as Tanya Brown, the sister of Nicole Brown
Simpson; kidnapping victim Elizabeth Smart, who says she was able to forgive the people
who took her away from her family; as well as the parents of children whose lives were
lost in the Columbine and Sandy Hook massacres.
"I have a really good collection of people who have practiced forgiveness and struggled
with forgiveness in different ways, and that was really important to me."
She explained that she wrote this book because she was struggling with the act of forgiveness
in her own life.
"I felt like I didn't really have a good handle on it and I found huge inspiration from talking
to other people about their experiences, so I wanted to put that together in a book to
help others."
While there's no doubt that Katherine Schwarzenegger is recognized for her famous last name, she's
still writing her own life story, and thriving.
With her successful career and famous family, she's a multi-millionaire - not to mention
all the money she shares with her movie star husband.
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