The Bossticks - #87: Katherine Schwarzenegger - Author, Blogger, and Animal Activist on Animal Rescue, Inspiration, and Women Supporting Women

Episode Date: November 7, 2017

On this episode Katherine Schwarzenegger (@katherineschwarzenegger) Author, Blogger, Animal Activist, and Daughter of Maria Shriver and Arnold Schwarzenegger sits down to discuss animal rescue, what it takes to be inspired, women supporting women, balancing social media, and trying your best to be the best at whatever you love the most. We also discuss Katherine's third book and first children's book Maverick and Me and Lauryn dives into Katherine's wellness and beauty routines.  To connect with Katherine click Here To Buy Maverick and Me click HERE To connect with Lauryn click HERE To connect with Michael click HERE This episode is brought to you by THRIVE MARKET. We use Thrive for our online grocery delivery on a weekly basis. They provide the highest quality products and ingredients delivered straight to our door with unbeatable prices.  Be sure to grab our deal by going to to https://thrivemarket.com/skinny to receive $60 of FREE organic groceries from Thrive Market + free shipping and a 30 day trial!" Keep in mind that Thrive Market's  prices are already 25- 50% below retail because they cut out the middleman. And now they are offering $60 off free organic groceries!  

The following podcast is a Bostick media production. She's a lifestyle blogger extraordinaire. Fantastic. And he's a serial entrepreneur. A very smart cookie. And now Lauren Everts and Michael Bostic are bringing you alone for the ride. Get ready for some major realness. Welcome to the skinny confidential, him and her.

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome back to the skinny confidential, him and her show. Today we will be talking to Catherine Schwarzenegger. She's a writer, a blogger, and an animal activist. She's also the daughter of Maria Shriver and Arnold Schwarzenegger. We're going to be talking to her about animal rescue, what it takes to write three books at the young age of 27, passions, balancing social media, and her wellness routines. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the show,

I am Lauren Everett, the creator of the Skinny Confidential, which is a blog, a brand, a podcast, a YouTube channel, And I'm Michael Bostic, entrepreneur, businessman. Last 10 years have been specializing in product development and direct-to-consumer sales, helping build client brands and my own brands. Sometimes I feel like you do an accent when, like, the show comes on. I might have a little bit of an accent. I think my dad's from the Midwest, so.

I mean, after the gin and vodka tasting this week with your bandana, it's not a surprise that you have an accent. You can never dang tell. Oh, no. You guys don't want them to do it. Can never tell. So last week was Halloween. Michael was a karate kid and a unicorn.

Well, okay, we got to give some context. It was our friend, we've talked about this last week, but it was our friend Gillen Maricio's, well, I was going to say that it was his Halloween, but I guess it's everyone's Halloween. But he likes unicorns and the karate kid. So I did a double outfit swap. And why did you do that? I don't know, just make the kid happy.

I feel like you were trying to take the attention off him and my relationship. Well, listen, there's a young kid. He's looking up. He sees a blonde girl with big candy. And he's just, you know, he's, he's infatuated. So I was like, this guy's not paying any attention to me. And it was pissing me off. Honestly, it was pissing me off.

But I was dead that night. I was literally dead. That was my costume. Your costume was a complete miss, in my opinion, for the children's Halloween costume because you came, like, fully dead makeup. And he was like, you know, we're there to celebrate the kids and go trick-or-treating. I completely disagree. Gillian told me to be as scary as possible.

And you tried to, you were an hour late trying to make an entrance. I wasn't trying to make an entrance. You were, like, thinking you were, like, going to make an entrance. make a big entrance to five-year-olds and like literally nobody cared of them. Like, yeah, we already went trick-or-treating and we already ate all the candy. Like, what do you been doing? That is such a lie. All right.

Well, if we want to give a little recap of our weekend, we went gin and vodka tasting at you and yours distillery in San Diego. And it was rad. It was so rad. They actually distill their own gin and vodka there. And she gave us the full tour. And it's very Instagram-y. The drinks remind me of floral farms.

They have like a ginger carrot turmeric turmeric margarita. which I definitely had. And from there, we went to Cafe Chloe with our sister-in-law and brother-in-law. Cafe Chloe is our favorite restaurant in San Diego. It reminds me of, like, this European, tiny little quaint, charming place. Don't you think, babe? I like it. I do like it a lot.

I don't know if it's my favorite, though, but I like it. What's your fave? I don't know. I bounced back and forth. You like Cowboy Star. Cowboy Star. I like a good steak. So another exciting thing this week,

is we're going down to celebrate our one-year wedding anniversary. You've been married to me for one year. How do you like it? We have made it this far. We did not kill each other. Everyone says that the first year is the hardest year. Is that true? Is that true? I just think you're overall annoying. Can I tell you you something? You know what? I just made that up. Nobody really says that. No, everyone says that. Oh, they do? Yeah. Oh, well, then we made it. No, I just think that like, smooth sailing from here. You've always been annoying, so it's like not anything different. But, but, you know, but. But I don't think it was that hard.

It is hard to work with you sometimes when you're grumpy. What have you planned for me? I've planned a couple things. I have some things at my sleeve. I got a whole itinerary. Do you really? Yep. I planned it out.

It's going to be super romantic. Okay. Are you really going to turn your romance card on? Because I don't want, I mean, I feel like every trip is work. So you've got to turn the romance card on. No, it's going to be super romantic. Okay. I've already sent Mimi, the itinerary, told her to pack your bags.

What does that mean? Well, because, you know, she needs to pack the right things. Wait, is that why she packed all my lingerie from my Bachelorette party? Well, I didn't tell her to do that, but if she did do that, Mimi, good job. She literally packed my crotchless underwear. Oh, here we go. I don't know if we need to tell everybody that, but all right, here we go. And she's also going to pack my crotchless underwear.

Oh. I'm just kidding. Oh, I'm going to go for a checktile. So, yeah, we're going down, going down to Cabo again. Michael's also probably going to bring this little something he's been working on. I have. I've been developing a new product, which I'm not quite ready to share, but we'll soon be ready to share. And I'm definitely bringing it down to Mexico.

It's for the bedroom. Let's put it that way. Yeah, soon to be for everyone in everyone's bedroom. All right, Michael, you're creeping everyone out. So, yeah, we're going to Cabo for our anniversary. We're going to be using his product that he's developing. I'll tell you more about that. Soon, it's definitely something him and his partners have been working on.

So we'll be using it. And you better have planned a lot of stuff for me because I have crotless underwear. That's enough. I pulled out all the stops. I did everything that I'll see what you did. I did. I'll be sharing it on Instagram and Snapchat sparingly. If this doesn't work, we might have to pull the plug one year on the dot.

All right. All right. Let's get into the him and her tip of the week. Do you want to go first? Because yours is quite unique this week. My tip is not really a tip. It's more of a complaint to the listenership, the community. People I thought were my friends.

You guys, he's been preparing this for a while. A lot of chatter has been going on on the social web because Lauren tells me, people reach out, they tag her and they say they love the podcast, which is awesome. He's been talking about this for like 45 minutes. And they message her and they tweet her. And it's really great for her. Not so much for me. Not a lot of not a lot of chatter on the interwebs for your old co-host over here. So I guess I'm going to basically put everyone on blast and say, where the hell have you all been? Michael, there's been crickets for you. I know.

Nobody's messaging me. My tip of the week is to message me and include me. I don't need any kind of praise. I just like some interaction. I feel like, you know, I'm just getting left out over here. You guys, he wants to be included on the Instagram stories. He's feeling left out. And I've had to hear about it.

So can you just like. And guess what? I'll respond faster because, well, I guess because nobody's messaging me. There's not a lot of messages. Actually, I'm just kidding. I get messages, but it's usually not good things. Kind of crickets. All right, well, then let's just use my her tip of the week to give value.

Mine's a good one, too. Was it, send more messages to you? No, it actually isn't. And I hope I haven't given this tip before because it's such a good one. And if I have, excuse me, but everyone should be using it. And that tip is unroll. If you don't have unroll, I don't know what you're doing. You have to get unroll.

So I was getting so many emails every single day. It was so overwhelming. Half of them were pointless emails. The other half were emails that I didn't need to see every day, but I didn't want to unsubscribe to. You know, some of them are my friends or things that I just didn't want to completely unsubscribe from. So I found this program. It's called Unroll. This isn't sponsored. I just love it. And basically, you can pick all the emails that you are subscribed to and put it. it in one email. So let's say you want to unroll to, you know, 180 emails. All those emails will come to you compacted in one email. So every day I get one email from an unroll. So instead of getting an extra 180 emails, I just get one email. The rest you can unsubscribe to so you don't

have to deal with that. Does that make sense? Yeah, I have unroll and I love it. You copied me. Yeah, I did copy on that. That's one tech tool that you gave me. That's a good one. It is a good one. It's changed my email game. It just completely, it's almost like a maid came in and, like, tidied up my inbox. It's like a fairy, you know? Like, you know the fairy that comes in our house every day and cleans the entire house and fold your underwear? Is that the fairy that I keep telling not to do that?

That I don't want doing that. That's me. And basically, that's what unroll does to your inbox. So definitely try it if you get overwhelmed. Because for, like, five years, I was so overwhelmed with my inbox. I didn't know what to do. And now I feel really good about it. I might have to unrule from part of this relationship.

Okay. All right. Catherine Schwarzenegger is a total babe. And not only is she beautiful, guys, she also has amazing skin and she's smart. Catherine is a writer. It's her third book and also happens to be a children's book called Maverick and Me, a blogger, animal activist, and a true beauty inside and out.

Maverick and Me is all about her rescue dog, which I feel like I need to meet after the show. Boone was adopted, so Michael and I are super supportive. of rescuing animals. Anyway, Catherine is also the daughter of Maria Shriver and Arnold Schwarzenegger, who we learn as an avid bike rider. Before we welcome this badass, dewy-skinned influencer to the skinny confidential him and her show, let's talk about hemp seeds. If you guys haven't used the Thrive Market Link for $60 of free groceries, what are you actually doing with your life? I'm serious. This is such a good deal, and Michael doesn't even know this. I actually used it

myself because basically you get $60 of free organic groceries and delivery by using the link thrive market.com slash skinny. So it's not a code, it's a link. All you do is type in thrivemarket. com slash skinny. But let's actually talk about what was on the top of my list. Hemp seeds. Okay, so hemp seeds are this magical seed that I've blogged about tons of times on the skinny confidential. If you don't know what I'm talking about, just Google magic seeds, the skinny confidential, can read all about them. Here's why they're amazing. They're filled with healthy fat and protein. So a lot of you guys didn't know this because I did an Instagram live. They are filled with protein. So I pack these babies in my smoothie, oatmeal, fiber-filled cereal, and even on top of avocado

toast. And in my smoothies and in my oatmeal. You need it though. You love them. They fill you up, guys. The ones I like are available at Thrive Market, so I highly recommend you guys use the $60 of free groceries link and throw in hemp seats. So if you're looking for other additions, I wanted to tell you my Thrive Grocery list. You know I get raw almond butter packets. They're so good. Throw them in your handbag. I get the insane Aztec healing clay mask, which, hello, duh, because it's six bucks.

Michael, you should get this too and use your own link. Cambucha, love kombucha. Mary's jalapeno crackers, they are so good with hummus and lemon. actually the F F Factor recommended these two because they're filled with fiber. I also like the organic strawberry fruit strips. They're perfect for a midnight snack while I'm reading Andre Agassi's book, if I'm being exact. And I also got the raw coconut oil that I use for my protein pancakes that I always cook on Snapchat. You can also use it as body lotion too.

So it's kind of a multitasker. Anyway, another reason I like Thrive is because you can shop by diet, which is very much ideal. So you can pick the option of paleo or gluten-free or vegetarian. You guys get it. But I just like really narrowing it down and keeping it efficient. It's so nice to go on the computer and be able to pick which diet you prefer and shop by diet. Lately, I've been doing the whole vegetarian thing. Actually kind of pescatarian, right, babe?

I'm doing fish, but a lot of vegetables and fruits. So to be able to just go and shop vegetarian is perfect. So I'm excited about having Thrive as a partner because I feel like it's a win-win all around. You guys should all check them out. Go to your own shopping. Pick up your hemp seeds. Pick up your organic strawberry fruit strips, your kombucha, your Mary's jalapeno crackers. So for $60 in free groceries plus free shipping and a 30-day trial, just go to thrivemarket.com slash skinny.

Happy shopping. All right. Now let's get into the interview with Catherine. This is the skinny confidential, him and her. Okay, Catherine, introduce yourself to the audience. Hello, I'm Catherine Schwarzenegger, and I am a writer, blogger, animal activist, young woman living in Los Angeles. Tell us about your book. It's for children.

It's your third book. Yes. So my most recent book that came out about a month ago is called Maverick and Me, and it's my first children's book. And it is all about teaching kids about animal rescue and dog adoption. I have a rescue dog named Maverick, hence the title. And I wanted to write this book to teach kids all about animal rescue and just the option of animal rescue. So hopefully when they get their first pet, they choose to adopt instead of by. Why is that so important? I mean, we have a rescue, but I want to hear from you. I mean, I am a huge animal lover, and I've always been a huge animal lover. And I, when I was little, didn't know that there was

such a thing as animal rescue. I feel like it's become more of a thing lately. But I just, I got my dog, not intentionally. I was fostering puppies before and then I had what you call a foster failure. And I just saw the way little kids reacted to meeting my dog and he is a brindledy, like, tiger, hyena looking dog. And they thought that it was so cool that he looked so different and that he came from under the freeway and that he came with like this story, that it was really interesting for me to see how interested kids were in the fact that you could get an animal that came with a story and that they would tell their friends about it. And it was just such a cool thing for me to see that made me want to write this book to teach kids all about the idea of animal rescue

and get them excited about it and hopefully telling their friends about it and just kind of create awareness around the issue. What should someone do if they want to rescue? Where's the first place to start? Yeah, I mean, I love supporting local rescues. I work a lot with the ASPCA. I'm an ambassador for their program so I love working with them too but I started supporting a local rescue where I would foster and so I always tell people whenever they think about getting a pet it's such a big responsibility and I grew up with pets but I never knew how big of a responsibility is to have one that's like solely dependent on you and so I always tell people to foster first because it gives you a little preview into whether or not you really want to make the commitment to getting a dog or a cat or

whatever animal it is. And it's such a rewarding experience to be able to have, you know, the pets in your home and then see them find such amazing homes that, you know, they're going to be loved forever. So fostering, I always tell people to do that first. And then doing that through local rescues, there are so many, especially here in L.A., and I'm sure, you know, wherever anybody is. But being able to do that, I think is such a fun thing to do. That's really, really cool. And don't you find that the rescue dogs are, like, more grateful in a way? I always say that, but some people get very offended. by that, but I always think that they feel like they're like, they look at you and they're excited

all the time and also really grateful for like having been rescued and saved by you and have a lot of love to give, not to say that other animals don't have love to give, but I feel like rescues have more love and appreciation all the time. Well, I'm probably going to offend a lot of people because we have two chihuahuas, right? And the first one, her name's Pixie. Lorne got her before we were together. Basically, it's like the love of my life, Pixie. And then we got our second dog and I named him She also says we, but I believe I named it. We go back and forth. I think I named him.

We named him T-Boon Pickens after the billionaire. And I feel like one of them is so spoiled, right? And she's like kind of a brat, but I love her. And the other ones is like super grateful and humble. There's like hearts out of his eyes every day. Yeah. Like he just like wakes up so happy every morning just to be part of everything. Well, also I think that they have such a big impact on like other people who are around you

because we grew up with pets. Like we had dogs. I had a pig in high school. We grew up with like all different kinds. I kind of grew up in an environment where my parents were and still are very much like any people can come over and any animal can come to the house, just like a very welcoming environment. So I rescued this pig and then I also rescued ducks and rabbits and it was just kind of like

a free for all at our home. But we always loved our animals growing up. But like I see my sister in the way she is with my rescue dog Maverick and she's like insanely obsessed with him. And I think it's because when we got him, he was two weeks old. He was so little and really sick. And he was supposed to, they told us to put him down because he was so sick when he was little. And so I think people think of him as like this little survivor.

So they have like such a intense attachment to him like my friends do. My family members do. So I feel like they are just like so much more lovable and appreciative of like everyone. I wish you brought him. I know. I should have brought him actually. You should have brought Boone too. They could have been friends.

So tell us about the. process of writing a children's book because I know you've wrote you've wrote three books so the children's book seems like a completely different process very different yeah can you talk about that yeah so I thought um that a children's book would be easier than my first two books just because you think oh it's for children so it's going to be really easy it was not um it took me about a year to do and um I think the most interesting part about it is you know I'm 27 now so it's been a while since I've you know, had story time as a child. When I wrote the book, I had to do probably about like 20 drafts of the story because we had to change it so much because you don't think about using

certain words or storylines that, of course, makes sense to you as an adult, but don't necessarily relate or excite a little kid who's reading it. So it was a lot of like changing words instead of saying, oh, she laughed to say, oh, she giggled, that, you know, certain things respond better to kids at a certain age than they do to people in, you know, their 20s. So that was really interesting to do and really different, obviously, from my first two books. And changing the storyline to make sure that it was accurate with, you know, the experience I had with my dog, but also inserting a little bit of, you know, variety in the story and making it okay with rescue organizations because how you word certain things is really important in the rescue world.

And then also illustrations were really important to me because I'm a very visual person. And I wanted to be able to work with an illustrator that I thought was able to draw my dog really well, but also be really fun for kids. Because when I wrote the book, I tried to remember all of the books that I read as a kid that I still remember today. Because that's, you know, when you write a book, what you want little kids to have with your book is to be able to learn a lesson, but also remember that when they're in their 20s. And so I tried to remember that. And I also tried to kind of translate that to my writing with the book. But it was definitely a harder process than I thought it would be for sure. So do you go and like, do you research old children's books to do?

No, like I remember like I was thinking, it was funny because I talked to my mom and I was like, because my mom's written children's books too. And so I was saying to her and I remember very well when I was little and she was going through the whole process of writing her book and asking, you know, my siblings and I, what pictures we liked better. And, you know, that was really fun for us. But I wanted to be able to, you know, think about the books that I remember. remember. So I remembered, you know, I'll love you forever, which is like one of my favorite children's

books and rainbow fish and like all the books that you remember. I love rainbow fish. I know. And it's such a cute book because you remember it, but it also has like the lesson in it to, you know, to share and always give back to others. So I think that you remember certain books that have messages in them, but also ones that like, you know, I haven't read a children's book or had story time in 20 something years, but I still remember those books. So it was a fun process because you kind of got to re-remember and it's like nostalgic exactly yeah how are children responding to it they love it which i'm i'm so excited about um because it's a different topic and i had never seen a children's book that was talking about animal rescue um and so i i feel really really lucky and really blessed to be

able to have had you know been able to travel around the country which i'm still doing and doing little readings with kids everywhere and seeing how much they love it and how they react to it and um and it's really great because when i'm doing this book with so social media. People send me videos of kids getting the book or kids reading it or wanting to read it at you know, bedtime, those kinds of things. So it makes me really excited and also, you know, gets me really excited that it could help get a lot of animals rescued, which is my main goal with the book was not only to, you know, have the book in the hands of a lot of children, but also be able to teach kids a lot about the amazing animals that are out there that are available for adoption and

hopefully get them excited about getting one themselves. That's great. I love. that you're doing that. I feel like a children's book tour would be way more fun than a regular book tour. What is the tour like? Because like everyone's so pumped to see you. Yeah. Well, it's also really different because for me, every single event that we've done is just filled with tons of little children and like babies and little kids and then a lot of puppies that are available for adoption. So it's like a dream come true for every single event. I'm like, I have to go to work, but it's not really work because I'm going there and signing and selling books, of course, and talking about something that I'm really passionate about but I also get a sit and play with puppies and babies which is like really fun

for me yeah it's so fun it's very different than my other two books because those were more serious even though this is a serious topic but it's definitely to be able to go around and and do readings and things is to go like schools and stuff or yeah we've done schools um we did a school in Dallas and we've traveled around a bunch of different places and um a lot of the times I'll send books to different schools because I think that it's important for um for kids to be able to have access to the book that don't or wouldn't necessarily have access to it. So for me, I love being able to like give the book to certain people. And one of the things that I started doing when I was in New York, I did, we launched it in New York and I was

there for a week. And we would go into all the Barnes and Nobles and sign all the books that are in stock there. And I would always buy a couple of them and hand them to kids that were either in the store or that I would see throughout my day. And just to see how excited they would get with such a rewarding experience. Because you don't really do that with like an adult book. you don't go and hand it to a stranger, or you can, but I just had never done that. So when I would hand the book to a kid and they would see that it had a little puppy on it or a little girl,

they just were so excited about it. And then I would tell them that this is about animal rescue and what animal rescue is. And it was just such a, I love kids and I've always loved kids, but people to see and teach them something that they didn't know about has been really fun for me. It's a good feeling too. Yeah. So you said you travel. What's the day in the life when you're not traveling? When I'm not traveling?

I love waking up really early, which my dog actually forces me to. How early I need to be a better morning person. Give me tips. Okay. Well, he's started lately waking me about like 6.30. Okay. That's doable. Yeah, that's fine.

And it's actually been nice because when I travel, I'm like already, have a little bit of jet lag, so I'll wake up naturally. But I've always been a morning person. So, like, every one of my family wakes up crazy early. So I take him on a long walk every single morning I try to. And then I just do a lot of writing. and then things like this when I'm home in L.A. and try to spend time with my family and friends,

but also work at the same time. So it's really fun for me. But I also like to travel. Yes. Okay, tell us about your blog. It's catherineshortsnager.com. And I have not been as active on it this past month just because I've been traveling so much. So I have to get back on that.

But it's just everything under the umbrella of lifestyle. So I do a lot of posts that are under the topic of lifestyle on your terms. So I like to highlight women that are doing really interesting things under a section that we do called Real Women Doing Real Things, because I did this tour last summer for T.J. Max, where I traveled to 16 different cities, and we interviewed over 600 women. And it was all about highlighting everyday women and everything that they do and how they live their lives in their own unique way. So I wanted to kind of start this series on my website where we highlight women that you might know or women that you not might. might may not know, that are doing really interesting things that I think are important for people to know about. So that for me is probably my favorite part about doing my website and meeting new

people and hearing all the interesting things that people are doing, especially, you know, women that we might not know about or hear about to be able to, you know, interview them or have them posts on the site is really fun for me. So at this point, would you list your profession as author? That's what you, that's full time. That's a, that's a profession. Yeah, I mean, I did my first. first book seven years ago. So I'd done three books in seven years. So it's not like I have it every, I'm writing every single day. But it's funny because, you know, when you do a book, like when my book came out, the first day my book came out, I've been working on this book for a year. And it's been like every single day. We have like tons of calls about it and editing, doing everything. It's like a big,

you know, undertaking. And everybody's always like, so when's your next book going to come out? I'm like, just give me a minute. Oh my God. That's like a baby. You have a baby. constantly, but it's been like that since I did my first book, which I think is really interesting because I love writing books and I do them based on just things that I'm really passionate about and just life experience is really how all three of them have come to be. And I love doing, you know, blogging and I love doing that. But for me, I love being able to write these books and then be able to go on a tour and get them out there and talk about the issues that I've written about. But people are so like, so what are you going to do now? Like when I'm

I'm like, just came out, like, give me a minute. You have to market the book. Yeah. Well, also it's just like you kind of want to be able to appreciate and enjoy the fact that you just spent like a year working on something and it's now finally able to be in the hands of people and that you want to be able to talk about it. And it's just, it's in the culture, you know, of just constantly go, go, go, go. And, you know, what are you going to do next?

It's like, and it happens forever. Like my mom has always told me that when you graduate high school, it's like, where are you going to go to college? where you graduate college, what are you going to do with your life? Wait until you get engaged and married every minute. I know, but I just don't. Like for me, it's like, you have a boyfriend. When are you going to get engaged?

When you have your first kid? When you have your second. It's like this, you know, culture of constantly like. You got to kind of block it out. Yeah. But it's hard because it's you do, you do any, you can do whatever. Like you can do crazy, amazing great things and people are still going to be like, so what are you going to?

You're like, just give me a quick moment to like appreciate the fact that. but I'm doing something that I'm really excited about, but I don't know when, like, my next book is going to come out. So it's a whole learning. Speaking of, like, of pressure, you obviously have two very overachieving parents extremely. What's the pressure of growing up in a family like that? Because I'm, you know, just to perform and get to that level. Yeah.

I mean, I, um, people ask me that a lot. And I don't feel necessarily that I have pressure from, I definitely don't have pressure from my parents to do like big, crazy things. You're doing big things. This is huge. You're 27. You've read three books. You're doing okay.

Thank you. You're doing great. But I think that, you know, it's inspiring because I look at both my parents and I see everything that they've accomplished and continue to accomplish. And it's exciting for me to see that and also, you know, be able to get inspired to do that myself. I think one of the things my parents did a really good job with the four of us kids is letting us know that. but what we do in life does not equal their love for us, which I think is such an incredible gift for parents to give their kids, is you know, you don't have to write three books in order for us to pay attention to you

or for us to love you that will love you no matter what. And as long as you work hard and, you know, do what you love in life, you're good. So my parents always told us at a very young age that, you know, if you wanted to have, I've always loved animals. My parents were like, if you want to be like a dog groomer, great be the best dog groomer that you can be and do that or you know if you want to work in construction or be a teacher whatever it is it's not that they raised us that we had to do you know big things or whatever it is it's really um we've had just incredible supportive parents that have

just taught us that whatever we want to do is like is great and and there's no like extra or additional pressure but i would say that obviously i also come from a bigger extended family that has done incredible things and change the world in many ways. And that, I think, is really inspiring because everybody in my family has found something that they're passionate in and decided to use that fire and energy to change the world and make the world a better place. And so, you know, for me, I'm obviously really passionate about animal rescue and channeling my energy in that way. So I think it's just about finding your path and where you're, you know, what you're excited about and what you're passionate about and being able to kind of work in that area, I think is a really big gift.

So it's not going to be construction. You know, speaking of books, and I don't want to go too deep in this, but there's probably one autobiography that I recommend to everyone, more than anyone. This is one of my favorites. On my website. Your dad's book is, I read it and I, like, outside of all. He's best autobiography. He says it everywhere.

No, I literally go it to everyone. I'm like, if you feel like you. He gives it out for Christmas and writes notes. I'm like, if you're like, I was like, quit making excuses and read this. Look at these. I know. My dad's very not good on excuse. Excuse is not his thing.

Okay, so you're a big advocate of women supporting women. Can you speak on that? Yeah, I mean, I think I learned that a lot from my mom. And I'm, you know, I'm sure you are very aware that when you're in, especially in industry like this, there are a lot of women, or whatever industry, there are a lot of women who are of the mindset that there's not enough room for everybody. and that there's only enough room for one blogger or one actress or one model. And I watched my mom and how she interacted with women in her field and her fields as she kind of has changed, you know, as I've been alive. And I just saw how supportive my mom was of women of all walks of life

and how she was always of the mindset that there was enough room for all of us and we should all work to build each other up instead of knock each other down. and for me I've really tried to live that with that mentality because I think that, you know, there's so much negativity in the world right now. And I think especially with women, you know, being negative to other women, that I'm very much of like the mindset that there's enough room for all of us and why not work to help each other and to lift each other up. And if you do this, that's so great. And, you know, if I can be of any health, then I want to help. And if you can help me, then you can help.

Like I love that whole mentality. And I think that that's one of the things that I really appreciate about this whole, I don't really like to call it a blogger world, but like the whole world of being able to, you know, work where you want to work and do what you want to do in life, whether that's, you know, a website or an Instagram account or, you know, or, you know, working in a nine to five job, whatever that is, just being able to find ways to help each other and then actually do

that for me is something that I find to be really rewarding and also really exciting when I see women doing things with other women because again I think it's just such a hard and crazy environment that we're in today and the whole women you know being mean to women thing is not like a new thing at all but I find that you know for me as I get older and I see more uh different work dynamics as I you know have experiences it's really exciting for me to be able to encourage that I think that's awesome. Okay, so we were just kind of talking about social media and anxiety. Can you speak on that? Yeah, I mean, I'm trying to figure out, I feel like everybody's trying to figure out a balance with social media. And I really am trying to figure out a balance because you want to be in the present and you want to be in the moment of your life. And you don't want to just see, you know, like, you get to a certain age and be like, wow, I videotaped and took pictures of myself for the past 15 years. And like, what do I. I have to say for it. But I think that there's just so much pressure to document everything and to,

you know, take selfies and we're in this whole generation of constantly having to like know what everybody's doing, show everybody what you're doing. And I appreciate that on some level, but on another level, I'm just like, what is like, it doesn't even matter. Like it's, I think social media is so great to be able to change the world and, and, you know, of course, show people pretty things, but I just think that it's creating so much anxiety. I see it with my friends and I see it with myself of just like having to constantly like, oh, I missed this for I don't post for a week. People are going to forget about me. And it's like, do you really, like, why do we care if somebody forgets about you for a week? It's just like this constant need for everybody to feel like

everybody has to know about you, know what you're doing. And I'm really into this guy who is an incredible preacher, but also an author. His name is Devon Franklin. And he just came out with a book recently. And my mom interviewed him last week and he was talking about how this, how my generation, our generation is all into a selfie generation and that at some point we're going to have to turn the camera around. and have a different mindset and mentality with how we live our lives and how we want to change the world. And I thought it was so interesting because it's true that like every, and I'm definitely not saying that I don't post selfies because I do. But I think that it's just a different mentality with how we live our lives and at what point we're going to say like a selfie is a selfie, but like what am I really doing in this world and how am I changing this world and how am I going to leave this world a better place.

so it's just something that I'm constantly like figuring out because sometimes I'll want to not post anything for a while and then people all be in a meeting someone will be like why didn't you post this week like I was in a meeting last week someone was like why didn't here's your analytic like why didn't you post you know this these five days in this month and I was like I'm I was on vacation with my family and when you're on vacation with your family for me I love being with my family and I love being present and in the moment and, you know, just being with each other. But then, and I want to do that. But then it's like, then you get flak for it. So it's like, it's such a hard. And I think at the end of the day, like when I go to meetings and someone's like, this is a missed opportunity that you like didn't post. And I'm like, that's so stupid.

Like, it's so dumb. I want to be able to spend time with my family and be in the moment and be present. And everyone's going to survive, including myself, if I take like a week off of posting on social media. It's just like it's you have to learn as you go with it. Yeah. Yeah. How do you shut it off?

I don't know. I'm like learning. It's hard though because, you know, if if you don't, it's like I'm okay with not posting for a week. Like I'm like great. I don't, I don't really like I don't really think that if I don't post for a week that the, you know, there's going to be a huge adjustment. Yeah, a huge uproar. Like I don't care. And I think that like you look at someone like Justin Bieber who's obviously like on a huge.

different scale, but him taking like a year off of social media to like get it together. I think it's just really admirable. And I think there should be more talk about that because it's really important. I think also not only for anxiety, but really just overall mental health for people who are so immersed in their phone and what's going on on their phone and all the different apps and everything, there should be more talk. And I think we're talking more about mental health in general in the world. But I think that just being able to talk about how all the.

the different apps and the social media is affecting our mental health and then like the longevity of our mental health like how i don't know personally like how that all will play out but i can't imagine that going at the rate that we're going at that's going to be really healthy yeah i totally agree with you it's crazy the i don't know you're 27 so you're just a little bit younger than us but you know we didn't grow we got all the way pretty much through high school without anything right like i mean i still had like a flip phone when i was in you were playing snake on your yeah I was like, yeah, you remember those things? Because Facebook didn't come out until I was a freshman in college.

But it's crazy to see the younger generation. It makes you feel old now. That's all they know. I literally look at them and I'm really sad. Like it makes me really, really sad because I loved my high school experience so much. Like I loved my high school. I went to Browwood School. I thought it was incredible.

And I just had such amazing friends and such an amazing experience there that I go back and I see. and I see the girls that are in high school or middle school now. And they, first of all, they look like very old and very mature, which I think is crazy. But they're all doing the selfies or taking pictures or documenting their entire experience, which is like, it's fun to take pictures with your friends. But like I have pictures with my friends that are on like a Polaroid camera where we look crazy. and I love being able to like look back at that and seeing like, oh, we wore such crazy outfits.

We're all in like juicy jumpsuits and we all have braces. we all have braids. It's really fun to be able to do that. And I feel like now it's going to be so filtered. Yeah, it's a lot of pressure. And it's so much pressure to post. And also it makes it high school's already so dramatic and gossipy and mean. But then you add the social media component to it.

And I'm like, I would not at all want to be a part of that. And I also look at parents. And it gives me anxiety for the parents who have to like, who have to know that their 14 year old is posting stuff on Instagram. and like do you check their Instagram? Do you have access to their Instagram? I would have a heart attack. Yeah.

And I was the last one of my friends to get a cell phone and I got my cell phone when I was in ninth grade. I was the last one of my friends and I thought that it was like the craziest most ridiculous rule that my parents had made that I was not allowed to have a cell phone when I was in seventh and eighth grade. And I see now kids that are in like fourth grade that have cell phones. Oh, it's crazy. Did you ever have a pager?

I did not have a pager. We had pages back in the day. That was too too much. Yeah. You are cheating yourself. You get the pager. You used to page me when we were in like seventh grade, 143, which means I love you every morning.

I'm a real romantic. I was like, that was like the original text messaging. That's really nice though. That's like a special memory. And then like you'd get the page and like hold on and you have to get up the pay phone. Oh my God, a pay phone. Because you could page somebody.

See all these youngans, listen here. You get the page and you'd have to list the number of like the payphone that you're at. So, for example, like if Lauren was at home, but I was, I don't know, at the mall or something, and I had pager, and then I'd have to pager the number of the pay phone, which you don't even see it. And then they would call and I'd be like, hey, you know, you know, what. Can you talk about your wellness, like what you do for wellness? Meaning do you like acupuncture? Like, what's your thing that you do? Acupuncture scares. I would love to get into acupuncture. It's very terrifying for me. I just don't, I, the whole, like, concept of needles just sitting on, I can't deal that. But you have piercings. I do. It's very, and I have touch. Like, I have touch. I have touch. I have. It's very weird. I just don't like them just like sitting there on it's very weird to me. I can see what she's saying. Yeah.

It's like they're sitting on my head. Why? Yeah. She does it. Like I'll go. But the one thing that I freak out about is, you know, when they're in you and I like think about like, what if I have to roll or what if something like falls? Like that's, what if there's a earthquake?

What if I have to make an escape and I'm like running around with needles everywhere? Yeah. It's very scary. What do you do for your wellness routine? I like when I, when I, um, walk with my dog in the morning, I like to be able to start my day off that way because I try not to I try not to walk and have my cell phone smart um so for me I like to be able to do that which I think is for me walking is like a really good way to start my day and also like get my blood flowing um but when it comes to like wellness I really like to be

around people that make me feel loved and happy and um and I think that there should be more emphasis on that because I think that you're constantly around people that are just like there for a picture or you know to show what you're doing on snapchat or that kind of a thing and really being able to be around people that make you feel good and that make you laugh and make you feel loved and supported um is such an incredible gift for me and and makes me just feel good and um kind of recharge especially when I'm traveling all the time um so doing things like that that just like make you feel like yourself but also kind of like are able to recharge. What about diet and fitness? What's your workout routine? I love Body by Simone.

Okay. I got to try that. No. Okay. I go. I feel like you'd have one of the best trainers in the world. Yeah. If I wanted to get like yoked, that would be really good. I'd be fun. I'd be yoked. No, I mean, my parents are super active. So like my dad wakes up every morning at like five in the morning and goes on a bike ride, which, you know, he goes and we'll kind of ride by, where I live and try and get us out of bed to go with him. But so we always kind of grew up with that. He just shoots by on the bike randomly. The other day he just came by, but it was in the evening,

which is very unlike him. He came by at like 5 o'clock in the evening on a bicycle with a flashlight on it. I was like, what are you doing? I feel like, you need a bike. Yeah. He's going to go buy a bike. No, he's going to go get a bike after you just said that.

I know he was. My dad's obsess of bike riding. And my mom, my mom loves walking, but she also loves to go down to the gym. She has a gym in her home. when she goes and she works out every single morning. So I grew up seeing my parents work out every morning and then sometimes in the evening as well.

And when we were little on the weekends, there was zero like, I'm going to sit on the couch and watch TV. If we turned on the TV during the day when we were little, it was just like immediate ground. Like you were grounded immediately. So we were always like, yeah, always active. And now like if I'm 27 now and I live in like my own place. And if I'm on the couch during the day, I like have anxiety.

Like in my life. mind I'm like I this is a waste of time like what am I doing and I have that same mentality about sleeping in like I'm like why am I sleeping in I should be changing the world I should be out doing that like yeah doing crazy things which I think is not the best thing but I think that it's it's just being active I love doing workouts with a bunch of my girlfriends I think it's really fun so whether we go on like a hike or go to a body by Simone class or yoga those things are really fun for me food what about food so I've been a vegetarian for like 10 years.

Okay. And I'll sometimes have fish, so a little bit pescatarian. That's what I'm doing right now. I just stopped eating meat two months ago. Oh, how did you like it? You feel good. Yeah, you feel good for sure. And I never really liked meat growing up anyway.

But I'm kind of feeling like my body feels like it might need some meat now for like the first time ever. So I'm also trying to figure out like what that is. But I'm not, I really want to learn how to cook because I'm really. really bad, like very, very bad. Yeah, Michael. I'm basically living off postmates at this point. I know.

It's so bad. It's really nice because it's convenient, but it's really bad because I feel like it's enabling people to not learn how to make food for themselves. Lauren has our pantry is like my hot subject. It's all organized perfectly, but there's nothing in there that's edible, I don't think. It's only like weird lima beans. No, everything's organized. I'm like super control.

Mine's the exact same way. I have, like, everything is labeled and it's like there's some chips. I have, if you look in my pantry, you would say like that for sure a four-year-old lives there, for sure. Like there's, there's Auntie Annie's Mac and Cheese that I can make crackers. I love that much chips. There's just like a string cheese. Like it's very, it literally like I live in a home. When my friend comes over with her little kids, I'm like, this is perfect for them because they can just eat every single thing that I have here. What are your favorite healthy recipes or meals or things that you do that just promote health? I don't know.

Here's a better question. What's something that you do that's not so common that you do consistently that you think has helped with wellness or health or exercise? I've started making my own coffee, which is like very not like a big deal, but I think that that's like very calming. I also love being able to light incense in the morning for me as like starts my day off. Some people are like, yeah. I totally get what you're saying. think that in order for you to kind of be able to start your day in a certain way that you have to meditate, which my mom is very big on like meditation and doing that.

And I appreciate that 100%. I'm just not able right now. Don't you feel like it's meditating though when you're lighting your incense or putting your oils on or music? I'm very into that like the crystals, the incense, like the oils, let's do it all for sure. You're just to talk to me in the morning. I'm like, I don't want to talk. No, I'm glad you said that because I have a really, I try. gave the meditation thing like a really good try right like I really tried to get myself I did a whole course on it too

I didn't go that far okay I did that someone told me I need to do the course and I was like I don't know if that would help me either but now you're telling me maybe don't waste time with the course but I could never I can't sit still like I can't sit still like I can't sit still like I can't sit still like I can't sit still like I can't sit still like I can't sit still like she's saying to wake up and light you know well like to have a routine I think that there's so, there's something about having a routine that just like makes you start your day. And when I don't do it, I'm like, like, I feel crazy in the morning. But like doing different things, like whether it's like doing laundry, like I love doing that or organizing my home. I think that that to me is very calming. When I go to the farmer's market, I love being able to like do flowers in my home. That's very calming for me. So there are a lot of different things that, that I think are like meditative practices.

Totally. But not necessarily like sitting in the traditional meditation. But my mom is constantly on my siblings and I, you know, you need to do the meditation. You need to be able to like, you know, have time where you shut your brain off. And I'm like, I don't think that I'm shutting. When I did try the meditation, I was doing it in the morning and the evening. And when I would do it in the morning, I would just fall back asleep. So I really didn't.

It's very confused about the purpose. You know what? I'm in the same way. Yeah. I'm going to light my oil or put on my oils and put on my boss in op. Yeah. That's my thing. I know.

Okay, so what are your beauty secrets? Sunscreen. Oh, thank. I'm very, very fair. See, guys? Yeah. Sunscreen. Very pale.

So I have, like, for sure, my mom's out of the family Irish skin. So I'm all about sunscreen. I definitely appreciate, like, a very good spray tan because I don't like to lay out in the sun. So I always tell, I have a bunch of, like, younger girl cousins, and I always tell them to wear a sunscreen. even when you're just like running around during the day I'd be able to get like a foundation or something that has sunscreen in it and I'm nuts about my skincare.

Like I'm crazy obsessive with it just because I find it I mean all the details. I find it fascinating. Like I think skincare is so interesting and all the development and like new products I think are so interesting. I have like a hoarding problem with products because I'm always trying new and different things. But I love right now this Korean skincare line called Airborian skincare.

Okay. Um, their stuff smells really good, but they also have like a BB cream and, um, and kind of like a makeup version of things that they can, that you can use with, you know, like a morning skincare routine of like washing and cleansing your face and then giving it the vitamins and nutrients that it needs, but then also being able to want to, you know, put on makeup and things like that. But I'm always trying new and different things. I love the whole sheet mask thing. When I travel, I bring like seven with me at all times because your skin gets so dehydrated when

traveling. But I'm always on my skincare. Like it's a whole thing for me. Literally like we'll be sitting at brunch and Lauren will just turn to me and look at me and be like, you need a facial. It was like great, like great. You know what though? His skin has changed since he started being with me. Like it's, I got him on mandelic serum. He's doing good. He does sheet mask. He does eye mask. I'm one of those people. If you show me what to do, then I can do it. I just maybe don't do the research for certain things like that. Well, I feel like most men don't do research for it. Like I feel like most men don't really do research for it unless their girlfriend. or wives are like, today we're going to do a sheep mask.

Like if I just came in and hit you with like a shitload of knowledge right now about skincare. You do know a lot about skincare. No, no. Yeah, but I'm sure he knows a lot about skincare from you. Yes. Yeah. Well, yeah, I mean, you just have to be insulted numerous times in the week to get on it.

You know how psycho I am? I have driving gloves because I don't want my hands in the sun. That takes it to a different level. I don't even have that. I'm going to take it to another level right now. I have, I just bought a mask. The visor? No, a mask.

Okay. On Amazon, a ski mask. A ski mask with two holes in the eyes. I mean, you're going to look like a bandit driving around. I want to look like I'm 21 my whole life. I don't want to. Why would I ever want to go in the sun? Like, I mean, I agree with you.

Like, even these lights, I wear sunscreen at night. Like, that's how crazy I am. I'm all about skincare. You want to get one of those moon burns, you know? No. Okay, so what is next for you? I know that you don't love that question. Yeah.

Even if it's like, you know, you're traveling for your book tour. Tell us. Yeah, I'm still traveling for my book tour. So I'll be doing my book, um, my book tour. and kind of traveling around and doing different events all through probably up until like holidays. So, which is really great and really exciting for me because kind of as I travel and meet new people or meet different people, we kind of continue to plan different events.

So like this weekend I have one with PETA, which I'm really excited about. PETA kids. We're going to do a reading with them at their center. I think it's in Silver Lake. So just kind of as I kind of go and meet new people, I'm going to San Francisco next week and then to UC Davis, which I'm very excited about, because it's like the largest veterinary clinic in the country. So I'm very excited about that. So I just kind of travel and I'm going to the Texas book festival in November. And so yeah, just a lot of that and traveling around talking about

the book, getting the book in the hands of kids everywhere and in teaching them all about animal rescue. I love it. Where can everyone find you? My social media, you mean? Yes. So, your address. Wait, I want to drive by. on my bicycle tonight. I'm going to show up with my How creepy would that be? Like after this, you were like sitting in your house eating Matthews cheese and you saw me like roll up behind your dad with a flashlight. I would by the way. That would make my day.

Don't let anything past him. All right. So yeah, I'll work on that. I'll stop the address. Go get a bicycle today and you can make that happen. I'll be behind him with my sheet mask. Yeah. Yeah. You want a bicycle. You'd be in like a full full body suit. If you see someone with a ski mask chasing me, don't worry. It's just my wife. Oh my God, I love that. Anyway, I have Instagram. It's just my full Catherine Schwartzmigger.

I feel bad like when I tell people where to follow me. People are like, I really have to spell your whole. Yeah, you do have to spell your name. Just spell the whole thing just so anyone. So Catherine, K-T-H-E-R-I-N-E-R-N-E-R-N-E-G-N-E-R. I'm pretty sure people. No, it's very confusing for people. I was ming.

No, it's hard name to spell. S-C-H-W-A-R-G-E-R. Spell that. Well, I can't do it. Yeah, see? I know it. And where your blog is just, Is cavernor.com. Okay. And tell us where they can find the book. Oh, it's at Barnes & Noble. It's also on Amazon. And then it's in bookstores if anybody wants to go into a bookstore because no one seems to be doing that anymore. I go to bookstores all the time. I love a bookstore. Actually, when I'm super stressed. I would be a guy at bookstore. I don't even know if I, if you know this, when I'm super stressed out or like having a meltdown, I don't know what to do. I do know this. I drive to a Barnes & Noble and sit there and like one of those weird people. You know, like, sit there and like the elderly person. And I just sit there and like read and chill out. It's like, it's calm me to be. It's very calming.

It's very quiet. And also, I hadn't been in, like, the kids section of bookstores in a while. But now, since I'm on this book tour, I'll go into kids sections of bookstores and they're packed. Like, kids are in there all the time of all ages. Huh. And it's, like, a great little reading spot. There's only one section of the bookstore that I'm a little confused about. How they have, they have, like, the DVD section.

Like, who the hell is getting the DVDs? I can understand about the... I'd love for Blockbuster to, like, reopen that. I feel like those are really, like, fun, like, renting a movie for the weekend. Blockbuster blew it. They should have been Netflix. They should have. Thank you so much for being. Thank you.

Thank you guys for listening to the skinny confidential, him and her show. Make sure you subscribe. Make sure you rate us. If you review us, just screenshot it and send it to Ask Lauren at the Skinny Confidential.com. That's Lauren with a Y. And you will get five of my favorite beauty tips and tricks straight to your inbox. That's Ask Lauren at the Skinny Confidential.com. Make sure you're following us on Instagram too.

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