About the Author
Mary is a public speaker and workshop leader. She addresses and leads groups to help individuals with personal change, create life balance, and return to a sense of self. Mary’s workshop: BODY BRANDING, GETTING COMFORTABLE WITH THE SKIN YOU’RE IN explores how we choose to “Brand” ourselves and then project that personal branding to the world. If our choices about ourselves are negative, how does it affect our daily life. “BODY BRANDING” examines how we can undo the negativity about ourselves and change the picture you offer of yourself to the world.
If the name Mary McDonough sounds familiar, it may be because she portrayed Erin on the hit series The Waltons.
Continuing her acting career into adulthood, McDonough has appeared on numerous series; ER, Picket Fences, Will and Grace, American Dreams, Boston Legal, and was a reoccurring character on The New Adventures of Old Christine. She starred in the made for television movie, Christmas at Cadillac Jack’s and will soon be seen in the upcoming film Lake Effects. Mary is an award winning Filmmaker. She wrote and directed For the Love of May, a film starring Patricia Neal. Mary has written, produced, and directed award winning educational films and was seen recently hosting her Walton family for, A Walton Family Reunion for the Inspiration Network which airs The Waltons daily. She has also utilized her communication and media savvy as a special correspondent for Entertainment Tonight and host of programs. Reaching others, it seems, was not just a career choice, but ultimately, a calling. She wrote her memoir to share her Walton experiences and the lessons she learned through feeling she was not enough.
Life Coaching
Perhaps the result of the many years she spent working in and successfully navigating her place in a difficult and highly visible industry, it seemed only natural for Mary to reach out to others. Thus, her work as a Life Coach began. A seasoned public speaker, she works with businesses and organizations of all sizes to help them attain their goals in a more harmonious and effective way. Most gratifying of all, however, is the one-on-one work she does with men and women to deal with and overcoming the fear and failure associated with career transition, family dysfunction and eating disorders so that they may experience the love, passion and success they so deeply desire.
About the Book
In this strikingly honest book, McDonough shares the story of her overnight transformation from a normal kid in a working class, Irish Catholic family, to a Hollywood child star. She reveals intimate memories of life in and around that idyllic Virginia farmhouse (really a Warner Brothers back lot in Burbank) – sneaking off to steal candy from Ike Godsey’s store; developing crushes on guest stars; trying to crack up cast members during takes; and, most of all, forming a tight-knit second family who played, worked, hugged, and squabbled together. But in the years that followed the show’s long run, as McDonough tried to reinvent herself, she found herself battling depression and personal insecurities amplified by her celebrity. Gradually she gained the courage to stand up not just for herself, but – in true Waltons tradition – for others, taking on a new role as an activist for women’s body image issues.
