After interning at the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty two years ago, Katherine Schwarzenegger was shocked by all the statistics concerning negative body image. So now she has written her own book: Rock What You’ve Got: Secrets to Loving Your Inner and Outer Beauty from Someone Who’s Been There and Back.
Brentwood resident Schwarzenegger, now a USC Annenberg junior, wrote this book to address the problem of poor body image for pre-adolescent girls and teenagers as a way to offer solutions to aid these problems.
“I became interested in body image and the issues girls deal with during my internship,†Schwarzenegger said. “The idea of writing a book came from seeing girls’ desire to be thin and sexy and look and be like a magazine cover. The concept of being sexy at 10 years old was the last thing on my mind.â€
“I wanted girls to know that beauty comes in all different shapes and sizes,†she said. “It’s not just what’s on a magazine that defines beautiful.â€
Schwarzenegger also aimed the book, in part, at mothers of girls. With so many mothers’ focusing so much on their own appearances, Schwarzenegger noted, it can set a bad example for their daughters.
Schwarzenegger first battled against poor body image starting in fourth grade. During this time, her mother would have her do an exercise in which she wrote down all her likes and dislikes about her body, and she came to realize she had more likes than dislikes.
Schwarzenegger would give young girls the same advice: Look in the mirror and look at the glass as half full rather than half empty.
