Calling all Maxxinistas! T.J. Maxx recently quicked off it’s new #RoadtoReal campaign tour, which aims to celebrate everyday women across the entire country. Familiar face Katherine Schwarzenegger has partnered up with T.J. Maxx to hit the road and interview real women who live life in their own way, on their own terms, each and every day. Daughter of the talented Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver, Katherine is no stranger to success herself. The best-selling author already has two books under her belt — I Just Graduated…Now What? and Rock What You’ve Got. She also has a popular blog, Lifestyle on Your Terms. Having always celebrated women and lifestyle, Katherine seems like the perfect fit to bring this campaign to life.
The #RoadtoReal tour hits 16 cities across America and will allow women to participate in one-on-one storytelling sessions at their local T.J. Maxx with Katherine, where they will discuss accomplishments, dreams, challenges, advice and inspiration. Photographer Andrea Chu will be snapping photographs of each woman to accompany their story and the tour will culminate back in NYC this fall where Schwarzenegger and T.J. Maxx will unveil a collection of photography and stories at an epic gallery event. Along the way, Katherine will be sharing photos and stories on her social media channels, so make sure to follow her!
We spoke with the one and only Katherine Schwarzenegger on all things campaign related, here’s what she had to say:
What made you want to participate in the #RoadtoReal campaign?
First of all, I love T.J. Maxx, I’m a maxxinista so I was interested in the campaign that they were doing and when I heard that it was all about traveling around the country to 16 different cities and interviewing real women about how they live life on their own terms, it was like, this is so perfect for me, because my website is Lifestyle on Your Own Terms, so it was a perfect match for me. I was really interested in the tour and I’ve always been really interested in real women and connecting with real women and hearing about their life stories and what makes them tick. And the fact that T.J. Maxx is giving a platform to these women and to listen to these women all around the country is amazing and I’m really lucky to be able to kind of carry their stories for them.
Were you nervous at all to begin the interview process with all of these women?
A little bit, but I’ve been able to get amazing practice with my mom, so for me, I feel very prepared. Whenever I feel kind of nervous about anything I try to be as prepared as possible because then I feel like you can’t go wrong. I’ve always been a very curious person, so for me, being able to talk to strangers and connect with women feels very normal and natural to me. I’ve just been really excited to be able to do it and New York is our second stop.
What are some of the most important lessons you’ve learned from listening to their stories?
I think the most common theme that I’ve seen so far is the level of positivity and optimism among all the women that I’ve talked to. I think when you are at home and you watch what’s going on in the news and what’s going on in the world, you think it’s such a horrible place out there, and I’ve always thought that there are so many bad things going on in the world and every single woman that I’ve talked to has talked about how much they just want to help people and make a difference in the world. To me, that’s been so amazing and inspiring and emotional. It makes you think differently about humanity and people.
Has there been any piece of advice that’s stood out to you the most through speaking to these women?
There’s been a lot of advice. I ask a lot of women how they don’t get overwhelmed by all the different roles they have in their life or different things that have happened in their life and it’s just to be kind to yourself and take one day at a time. I really enjoy being able to hear that, because you see so many women who are balancing so many different things — several different jobs, they’re a mom, a single mom, a wife, a daughter, a sister. You have so many different roles and we as women manage a lot of different things in life.
What’s been the most challenging aspect of bringing the #RoadtoReal campaign to life?
For me there really hasn’t been anything challenging about it so far. The whole message is really amazing and inspiring and traveling around is really amazing and I’ve been really lucky that a lot of the women have been able to open up really quickly. We only have 10 to 15 minutes with each woman and a lot of them have gotten really emotional very quickly. To be able to tell their stories is really amazing and I feel so lucky to be able to do that. Keeping it together when I hear people’s emotional stories is probably the only hard thing.
Switching paces a little bit, you’ve already written two books. Do you have any plans for upcoming books? Do you think you’ll do something somewhat related to this campaign?
Yea, I’m definitely working on another book now. The books that I’ve done so far have been based on life experiences. This #RoadtoReal tour is going to provide me with a ton of experiences and life lessons. So you never know what will come out of it but I think definitely been inspired to share their stories and do more with them, so I don’t know if it will be in book form, or what sort of form it will be in, but I want to do more books and just base them off of life experiences.
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