Eva Pilgrim, WALTER DOES HIS BEST: A Frenchie Adventure in Kindness and Muddy Paws
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[0:38]Eva Pilgrim is the author of Walter Does His Best, a Frenchy adventure in kindness and muddy
[0:43]pause. Eva is an ABC correspondent and co-host of Good Morning America weekend edition.
[0:48]Eva is building her life and career on kindness. From a young age, Eva's mom taught her that kind
[0:53]was the best thing she could be, and Eva still lives by that philosophy. Eva and her colleagues at Good Morning
[0:57]America have developed by hashtag nice girls movement, and she believes that it makes the
[1:01]newsroom a happier place and that it produces better work. She wants young people to know that kindness
[1:06]is a strength, and we all have an opportunity to make the world brighter one action at a time.
[1:10]Welcome, Eva. Thank you so much for coming on Momstone Have Time to read books to discuss
[1:15]Walter Does His Best, your children's book. Thanks for having me. It's my pleasure.
[1:20]Yes, I've read this now several times to my kids, and they are huge fans, so thank you for,
[1:26]you know, spicing up our bedtime last night and other nights. I appreciate it.
[1:32]They were like over the moon excited that Walter was actually your dog, which they did not
[1:37]realize it for so. Well, I had some of the stories in that book are actual real-life Walter stories.
[1:42]Oh my gosh. I was like, you guys, Walter has his own Instagram account. They're like, no way.
[1:48]It's because my husband was like, you can't just keep posting pictures of your dog.
[1:51]Yeah, yeah, I can't get someone running around. I'm not sure where he is in the moment.
[1:58]I had to cut myself off. I'm like, I can't post my dog more than like, once a week or something.
[2:04]I have a limit. I'm like, okay, he's he's been in the squares. Like, he's in like three of the five.
[2:09]I didn't just. Okay, so tell listeners what Walter Does His Best is about and what inspired you
[2:17]to write this children's back. Um, it's about kindness, ultimately. And I think about the fact
[2:23]that we're all in perfect. Oh, there's Walter. I see. I'm like in the back corner.
[2:29]Oh, hold on. He was in his wig. Well, he he goes there when he's not getting attention. He's
[2:35]Oh, my gosh. Can I take a screenshot of this? Oh, my God. Okay. Okay.
[2:45]He expects to have attention like right away. And so he he's a little angry that I didn't
[2:51]cuddle him and rub his belly. Oh, he's very spoiled. But ultimately, the book is about Walter and
[2:57]the joy that I saw that he was giving to people as he was trying to like do these like,
[3:04]you know, you know, dogs very much are like trying to do good things to like, please people
[3:08]and make them happy. And as I was watching him, it was the early stages of the pandemic.
[3:13]I just was like amazed at like how people responded to him and how they in turn responded to me,
[3:19]which was really nice. I mean, you live in New York. So you know, like when you walk around with
[3:23]no dog, nobody even notices you exist. But all of a sudden you have a dog and like it is this sort of
[3:29]like magical thing where you start to have these interactions with people. And so we were writing down
[3:35]some of the funny things that Walter does that, you know, he's not perfect. He's a little bit of a
[3:41]hot mess. We have tried to train him. I noticed him that way. But he has a mind of his own. And so
[3:49]yeah, so that was kind of just the whole idea. And my husband and I at the time were trying to
[3:53]get pregnant. I'm like nine months pregnant now. Oh my gosh, yang. Any moment now, every little
[3:59]movement that happens. I'm like, is this going to be it? But we were talking about, okay, what's
[4:05]most important to us as we start to think about what do we want to, how do we want to shape the
[4:10]life of our daughter? And what lessons do we want to make sure? Like what are our like must
[4:16]have things? You know, and the thing we kept talking about was kindness. Like you don't want your
[4:20]kid to be a jerk. And that would be the one thing that would like really upset us if we found out
[4:26]she was mean to some other child or to some other person. And so Walter seemed like this great avenue
[4:33]as a way to talk about kindness with kids. And so as I was writing down his stories, I just
[4:40]turned into this book. Not all the stories in the book are real life Walter stories, but several of
[4:45]them actually are. To your point on kindness and wanting your kids to be nice, I have four kids of my
[4:53]own. And I have to say they've been through so much stuff. All of them. And I have had such emotions
[4:59]that accompany all the stuff, all the good stuff and bad stuff that's happened to them. However,
[5:03]the time I think I've been most upset myself was when one of my kids did something to someone
[5:09]and that made me like want to vomit. Like I was beside myself. Like how could I raise a child who
[5:15]would do X, Y, Z and whatever. Anyway, it ended up being an aberration not that you're worried.
[5:19]But you know, I have vivid memories of my mother who like that was the thing she cared about the
[5:25]most, right? She, I mean, she wanted us to be smart. I have like a crazy Korean tiger mom for a
[5:30]mom, but she wanted us to do well in school, but she also really wanted us to be nice. And I
[5:35]remember one time as a child in elementary school, I wasn't outrightly mean to someone,
[5:43]but I remember I was dismissive of them and kind of ignored them. And my mother had this very
[5:49]long conversation with me about how that wasn't okay. And that I needed to go rectify it and make
[5:54]it right and to make sure that person felt included. And that was a memory that has stayed with me
[6:00]into my adult life. Like I remember how bad I felt and how the disappointment that my mother had
[6:06]because of how I behave really changed how I interact with other kids going forward. So
[6:12]you sort of just want that message where kids are paying attention to how other kids around them
[6:17]are feeling. You know, it's like notice this child over here is by themselves and they look lonely
[6:23]and they're very quiet. And maybe you should go over there and be their friend. And that small
[6:28]acts of kindness could be huge in that other person's life. You know, that's what you want, right? Like
[6:34]you want them to be that person. Totally. My husband and I say to my, I don't know why we only
[6:40]say this to my daughter. We should say it to all of the kids. But anyway, whenever she's like
[6:43]worried about school or anything, we're just like, okay, well, today in school, you have to make
[6:47]someone else smile. Like come home and tell us how you did it. Like make someone else's day good.
[6:52]So I don't know. I think also just taking them out of themselves. Like kids worry about so much
[6:57]stuff themselves and there's so much going on all the time. So focusing on other people's feelings
[7:02]from the beginning, it just can't hurt. Yeah. No, that's such a good thing. It's like make someone
[7:07]out smile. I have to remember that. Yeah. Parenting hacks 101. I could go on. We could have a
[7:13]whole conversation about what to do with this child of years about to be born. But I will say I
[7:18]also had a dog when I brought home one of my older, one of my later kids. And it was not always,
[7:22]it's not always like the most easy to acclimate the dog and the baby's situation. So I don't know
[7:28]why I remember I saw this woman who said like get a doll. And so we like got a doll before we had
[7:34]the kids and to get the dog like used to having a baby and baby crying. So we got a doll that like
[7:41]made these crying sounds, which was so annoying. And I'm like, I can't believe I'm sitting here
[7:45]like massively pregnant, like holding onto a baby doll, like listening to the baby doll fake cry
[7:50]to train my dog to not attack my child. Like this is insanity. And I'm just going to own it right
[7:55]now. We're playing YouTube videos of crime babies trying to get him used to the screen.
[8:03]Because he doesn't like it. I mean, yeah. Oh my gosh. Yeah. I don't like it either.
[8:11]Why am I subjecting to myself to this before I actually have to endure it?
[8:15]And it's so much worse in person not to scare you, but you know,
[8:20]when it's your own child and your heart is also breaking a little bit and feeling like you're
[8:23]responsible for the crying. That's even worse. But anyway, back to the book.
[8:28]Sorry. Okay. So you have a dog. You want to inculcape to the sense of kindness and all of that.
[8:35]But why when did this become an actual project for you? It was, I started working on it. It was
[8:41]like March, April 2020, like right at the beginning of the pandemic. It was crazy. And the world
[8:47]just sort of slowed down, which is how that element of you know, Walter does his best kind of
[8:51]folded in because we were all doing our best. It was like a little bit of a hot mess. I think for
[8:58]everyone. And yeah. So I had a little bit of time where I wasn't traveling. And I had some time
[9:05]to think. And we had talked about doing this shortly before then, but to actually have a moment
[9:12]to breathe. And it was this happy place for me. I would like sit outside in our little backyard.
[9:19]And it was like kind of cold, but I was under a blanket, like riding down these ideas and playing
[9:25]with Walter. So it was a way for me to escape in the middle of the pandemic as well. So, you know,
[9:31]a win-win. A win-win and Walter is now, you know, famous for all mankind.
[9:38]So what happened between growing up with the Tiger mom and now, like, how did you get onto GMA?
[9:44]And like, how did you decide on this path? It was kind of an accident. I mean, anyone with a
[9:49]Korean Tiger mom knows that they mostly want you to either go like very stable careers, like
[9:53]Dr. Lawyer, or something like with a predictable path. I was supposed to go to med-
[10:00]school, I was, you know, doing, I had a background in science and was doing chemistry and nutrition,
[10:05]and I started doing websites in college, and I was always interested in journalists, and I was
[10:09]like on my high school newspaper, you know, but I was very curious as a child, and this sort of
[10:14]like felt normal and natural, and I liked talking to people. And so next thing I knew, I was like
[10:21]working at a TV station when my friends was like, we have a job, come work here. So I went and
[10:24]worked in West Virginia. I went from West Virginia to Charlotte to Indianapolis to Philadelphia,
[10:31]like as a local news reporter and anchor, and then a bunch of women got pregnant all at the
[10:36]same time and ABC needed a female correspondent. And that's kind of like how it started for me. I
[10:44]came up and have been really blessed to have gotten to travel the world and see history as it
[10:50]happens, like with my own two eyes, which I think is so special to know, you know, exactly what was
[10:56]happening in front of me, not someone else's filter of how it was happening. And I've traveled
[11:02]all over the place. I mean, I've done live shots like in front of the Eiffel Tower and then
[11:06]and all over the country from like tiny, tiny towns across America. So it's been this really
[11:13]life changing experience when you get to meet so many different people and see so many places.
[11:18]I'm super, super grateful for it. Wow, that's amazing. What's like a moment in history that
[11:24]might what felt a little different to you actually being there than we might have seen on TV.
[11:29]I mean, it was interesting because I sort of it sounds weird to say it this way, but I sort of
[11:36]made my way through the ranks of correspondent covering natural disasters and tragedies.
[11:41]I remember at one point some guy on in maybe Virginia, I think it was after Charlotte's
[11:47]film was like when when I see you show up, you're like the angel of death. And I was like, oh, no,
[11:53]he wants to be that. And he is like, but it's always something bad happens where they send you.
[11:58]And and that's that wasn't untrue. I was covering percanes, floods, tornadoes, you know,
[12:05]mass tragedies. But the thing that was really interesting and has been interesting for me is
[12:11]you would be amazed at the the just love that people show each other in these really horrible
[12:17]moments. I mean, you see the worst of people, which you also see the very best of them. And I'm
[12:24]so grateful that I get to see that and be reminded of that all the time that we have that
[12:30]goodness and kindness in us. And maybe we don't show it to our neighbors every day. But when our
[12:36]neighbors are we're all in like a really bad situation where people have just lost everything they
[12:41]own in a hurricane, you see people sharing when they have nothing to share. And there's something
[12:47]really special about that. And I think that's something that people never get to see. You know,
[12:52]we try to portray that on television, but to see it and feel it and hug those people. Like there's
[12:57]just something amazing about it. Wow. That's really inspiring. How do you not have PTSD yourself
[13:03]from seeing all the stuff or maybe you do? I think it stays with you a little bit. But I mean,
[13:09]I think it's the good that you see in people that inspires you to, you know, want to do more and
[13:14]do better and be grateful every day that today is not your worst day, you know, to gain, put
[13:20]things into perspective. And I think that like grounds you in a way that like few other things
[13:27]really can. I love what you just said. Be grateful today that today is not your worst day. And
[13:32]that's really that's it. That's like the best way to live through life. Yeah. No. I mean,
[13:36]it could be a lot worse. Yeah. The flip side. Yes. Exactly. Oh my gosh. Wow. And so how how did the
[13:46]process work with the book and the illustrator and, you know, making it into a finished product
[13:51]and was that really exciting? Tell me about that. It was different than anything I've ever done
[13:56]before. I tell stories for a living, right? But telling Walter's story was, you know, you're trying
[14:01]to kind of think how am I going to put this together? And the pictures do say and do so much,
[14:06]right? So we started off, it was actually supposed to be kind of like, I think more of like a
[14:11]sweet story that rhymed. And as I was drawing inspiration from the real Walter, it kind of, he's,
[14:19]I'm not funny at all. He's very funny. And so the things he were, he was doing people were laughing at.
[14:26]And so we talked about like what we thought one of those pictures to look like and how we
[14:31]built off of his own kind of humor and natural personality and making sure that kind of
[14:37]shine through. And the rhyme went away because it was just taking away from being able to really
[14:44]showcase those things. And they, we had these Zoom calls. And I mean, Walter's not at me right now,
[14:50]so he's in his wigwam, but Walter would show up on the Zoom call. So everyone that's part of the
[14:55]team that worked on it to see Walter being really bad. I think that helps, you know, to sort of,
[15:02]oh, I know how he would look or what he would do or how his body would move or you know what I
[15:08]mean, to sort of inspire it as we, you know, sort of started to talk about what we want the pictures
[15:13]to look like. And Jessica Gibson, the illustrator, so fantastic. I mean, the pictures of Walter
[15:18]and the chaos. So, I mean, she's just brilliant. I mean, they make the story, I think.
[15:25]Yeah, they're awesome. Really amazing. And it looks like he doesn't it? I mean, it totally looks like
[15:31]him. It's like, you know, poor Walter, just like everything. He's like this sort of hapless,
[15:38]you know, always wanting to do his best, but nothing, everything up, which I am the way to.
[15:43]And myself.
[15:46]So what is next for you? You're having a baby, like what's on the horizon? Are you going to step
[15:51]back from work for a while? Are you going to like do you have big term, big long terms of career goals
[15:57]or like you've already achieved so much? What are you thinking? Yeah. So the babies do like any day
[16:02]now, allegedly, my due day is like coming up, I think next week. So yeah, I'll probably be out
[16:09]for a bit doing maternity leave and trying to figure my way as you do with a new baby. And Walter
[16:17]will hopefully like her. That's what we're hoping for. And then I'll come back kind of, the plan
[16:23]is to come back kind of part time and ease my way back into it. Because I do travel a lot for work.
[16:27]And so I'm just going to dip my toe back in and then I'm very lucky. I work for Disney and we
[16:34]have a great package that they give us to sort of acclimate us for maternity leave and for family
[16:40]bonding to make sure that, you know, the family unit is important. So I'm very grateful for that. And
[16:45]I realize like not all women get that, but I'm planning to fully take advantage of it. So then
[16:52]come back and we'll see what happens. I still have like long form like documentary style pieces that
[16:59]I'm have my fingers in that are in the works. So hopefully none of them have to go to air while
[17:06]I'm gone. But I've been trying to tie up all the listens. I think like anyone who's ever been
[17:12]pregnant and knows that they have to go on leave. It's like trying to do all the projects and finish
[17:16]them up or at least pass them off like in the best place. It's like checklist every day of all the
[17:22]things that I want to make sure everyone else knows when I'm not, you know, easily accessible.
[17:27]Wow. Well, good luck. I think at least that'll bring another book perhaps, you know,
[17:33]Walter gets a baby sister or something to just keep this going. So what advice would you have for
[17:38]aspiring authors, particularly a picture books? You know, I had a high school teacher tell me once
[17:45]right what you know. And I really think that's the best advice. Like as I was sitting there
[17:50]thinking, what am I going to, how am I going to tell the story? It dawned on me right what you,
[17:54]I know my dog. He is funny. He gives me a lot of laughs and joy. And I think that's kind of the
[18:01]thing. Like when you write what you know, even if it's not like a hundred percent real life,
[18:06]but you know that very well, it's easier. It comes more simply.
[18:11]Awesome. Amazing. Well, Eva, thank you. Thanks for sharing Walter with us and making me feel very
[18:18]grateful that my current dog happens to be particularly well behaved, but it has not always been the
[18:23]case. I did have, I had a bulldog who I had to get a stroller for and would never, ever, ever walk.
[18:28]Yeah. So I did every day. Every time this dog actually walks, I'm like thrilled. So
[18:34]Walter's like to walk. They do not. They do not. Now they do not. I think my old dog had like a
[18:40]major anxiety disorder or something. I don't know. He wouldn't go, she wouldn't go in her. Anyway,
[18:44]long time ago, but thank you for this book. Thanks for sharing your story and best of luck with
[18:49]with your new baby. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me on. And thank you for reading
[18:53]the books here, kids. Oh, yeah. It will not be the last time I do that. Thanks. All right. Take
[18:59]care. All right. Bye bye. Bye. Thanks for listening to this episode of Moms Don't Have Time to Read
[19:05]Books. Don't forget to follow me on Instagram at zibi Owens and at Moms Don't Have Time to Read
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