Katherine Schwarzenegger Releases Body Image Book

Katherine Schwarzenegger, 20, the oldest child of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and journalist Maria Shriver, has penned a new book, scheduled for release Tuesday, about how she and other young women deal with body-image issues.
Something that's key for girls trying to gain perspective these sensitive matters, she argues, is sustaining a close relationship with their mothers. "My mom was always good with me. She always checked in with me. I had the best relationship with my mom. I still do. I talk to her four times a day," Schwarzenegger tells USA Today.

She also notes that both of her famous parents tried to shield her and her siblings -- Christina, 19; Patrick, 17 this month; and Christopher, 13 this month -- from the harsh glare of the Southern California celebrity-publicity complex. Her parents "were very protective of having us in the public eye when we were younger," she tells the paper. "We didn't go to Hollywood premieres. We practiced community service. We went to school and camp like normal kids."

Still, even with a protective set of parents, Katherine Schwarzenegger -- who is now a junior at the University of Southern California -- says she became "self-conscious" about her weight in her middle-school years. She tried to ward off such feelings by undertaking an informal contest with a friend to keep their weights beneath 100 pounds. (Schwarzenegger is now 5-foot-8 and a size 6, the paper says.) But weight loss didn't become the obsession for her that it did for many girls, she says.
"I did not have an eating disorder at all," she says. "It was like a friendly competition."

Schwarzenegger's book, "Rock What You've Got: Secrets to Loving Your Inner and Outer Beauty From Someone Who's Been There and Back," contends that close family relationships across the board are a critical resource in dealing with body-image issues. "I also have an amazing relationship with my dad. ... I talk to him about boys, about going out, about what I'm interested in, about business."
Her dad may well be asking for some counsel himself these days. Late last week, he found himself stirring up controversy after he took to Twitter to mock former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's infamous 2008 campaign gaffe alleging that Russia was visible from Alaska. As the California governor flew over Alaska, he wrote that he was "looking everywhere but can't see Russia from here. " He promised his Twitter followers that he would keep them "updated as search continues" -- enclosing a photo of himself staring out a plane window for good measure.

He has tangled with Palin in the past: When she composed an op-ed in the Washington Post questioning the science behind global warming, he suggested she might be more "interested in her career and winning the nomination" than in honest inquiry into the subject. By most conventional political calculations, the elder Schwarzenegger can ill afford to sow dissension among fellow GOP leaders, given that his home state approval rating is now around 16 percent -- the lowest for any major political figure in the country, and beneath the lowest point that his Democratic predecessor Gray Davis reached before the 2003 recall election that swept Schwarzenegger into power.  Come on Arnie, you have to work a little harder. Put some muscle into it. Congratulations on your daughter , Arnie, she is beautiful. Sounds like she's smart too.