Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Katharine Schwartzenegger is (duh) the daughter of Maria Shriver and The Gubernator (Arnold Swartzenegger), and it's hard to believe this would have been published otherwise. I picked this up thinking it might make a good book for a friend's teenage daughter -- the title and blurb suggest it's about sensible eating and loving your natural curves. The book jacket photos show the young author, who is attractive and normally proportioned, though not the "skinny minny" Hollywood type. I expected the tone of the book to be breezy and informal, and geared to young girls ages 12-18. Boy, what a puff piece. For starters, this feels not only ghost-written but committee-written. It doesn't have the integrity of a piece written by a real flesh-and-blood human being. Katharine seems to have had some struggles with normal puberty and development in some chapters, but in others not so much. In some, her family is warm and supportive. In others, her dad is fanatically throwing out junk food, and harshly interrogating her about what she eats. It goes on and gets worse. Almost every piece of sensible advice given out is then contraindicated by ANOTHER confusing annecdote. Accept your natural body...but don't eat too much! Don't obsess, don't compare -- but don't get fat either. Eat the pizza (but only one piece!) Don't weigh yourself, but don't gain weight either. Clearly, the author still has a LOT of issues about having a curvy body in the Hollywood/LA milieu where size zero rules all. I was a little alarmed at the section on birth control. Katharine started her period at 14, then quickly became sexually active and on the pill. She recommends starting birth control even before you are sexually active, advice I imagine some parents would not be too fond of. The pill makes her gain some weight -- another thing that is normal, and should be accepted, but she feels like "she's in a fat suit", so she discontinues it, and "uses some other form of effective birth control". What??? Boy, what a COP OUT. That's advice for girls that is next to worthless. And what if your parents aren't celebs, who are cool with you having sex in 10th grade, no matter if you "talk to them about it"? She gives no options. Frankly, I do NOT think Ms. Schwartzenegger has "come to terms" or is at piece with her moderately full-figured body (though I agree she is fine as she is) and no talk about the OLD discontinued Dove "natural body" ads will convince me of it. Would a girl of 12 or 14 even REMEMBER those ads from several seasons back? (BTW: Dove discontinued the ads because they provoked so many hateful comments from MEN and from health care professionals, who wrongly supposed they were "encouraging obesity".) I'm not sure how old she is, but even your early 20s can be a long way off emotionally from your early teens. (Yes, human beings forget stuff THAT FAST.) The only way to talk about healthy bodies and acceptance of your natural body is to accept that SOME BODIES are naturally fat, just as others are naturally medium (like Ms. Schwartzenegger's) and others are naturally skinny. You can't accept the last two, but turn around and say the first type is NOT natural or acceptable. You can't encourage acceptance, and then go hating on the enjoyment of food. And exercise can be as much an obession as dieting. Conclusion: I can't recommend this for young girls of any age. It feels manufactured and "fake", and the advice ranges from sincere to sanctimonious to conflicted to outright incorrect.