What JFK's Granddaughter Tatiana Schlossberg Really Does For A Living

Tatiana Schlossberg is one of several heirs to the Kennedy family's billion-dollar fortune, but she's carved out a successful career on her own. Schlossberg — who is one of John F. Kennedy's two granddaughters and three grandchildren — is a respected journalist who's written for prestigious publications, such as The New York Times, Vanity Fair, The Atlantic, Yahoo Entertainment, and The Washington Post, to name a few. Throughout Schlossberg's illustrious career, she's covered various topics, including "donut wars and stolen puppies," per her website. However, her main focus has been on science, climate change, and environmental issues.

According to People, Schlossberg's professional journalism career kicked off while she attended Yale University, working as The Yale Herald's editor-in-chief. The publication, which described itself as a hybrid of a newspaper and a magazine, featured articles from and concerning Yale's undergraduate population. From there, Schlossberg was hired by The Record, a New Jersey-based publication. According to Patch, Schlossberg officially joined the company in September 2012, a few months after completing a trial editorial run. In the years since, Schlossberg has continued to extend her editorial reach. However, she also holds a few other titles beyond that of journalist.

Tatianna Schlossberg has achieved a great deal as a journalist, but she's also channeled her love of words into a book, "Inconspicuous Consumption: The Environmental Impact You Don't Know You Have." The lengthy book, which went on to win the Rachel Carson Environment Book Award, seeks to educate readers, through humor, on the devastating impact their consumerism can have on the environment. During an interview with People, Schlossberg spoke on the dangers of overconsumption. "Climate change is not a distant problem," she explained. "It's involved in all of our lives through the stuff that we use, buy, and eat — which is not to say that individuals like you and me are responsible for climate change." Schlossberg placed most of the responsibility on large industries — including the fossil fuel industry.

With that said, Schlossberg believes that individuals can make meaningful change. "I'm not letting everybody off the hook, but it shouldn't be up to the consumer to find the most sustainable option," she added. "I hope readers will feel like they have the power to make more demands of companies." 

Schlossberg also revealed to Vanity Fair that she's adopted some of the values she pushes in the book "I try to live in line with my values, because that's important to me," said Schlossberg. "I want to be the kind of person who is conscious about the way that I move through the world." However, she also acknowledged the importance of setting realistic standards and finding balance.

Tatiana Schlossberg has obviously dedicated her life to her writing career, but she also makes a living as a public speaker. As of this writing, Schlossberg actually has an active profile on All American Speakers, where interested institutions and businesses can book her services directly. Schlossberg's public speaking services are also listed on the CAA speakers website, which states that Schlossberg offers public commentary on climate change, sustainability, and social justice, to name a few.

In 2019, Schlossberg spoke at the JFK Library and explained how fast fashion is ruining the environment. "For fast fashion, for example, the clothes are cheap because no one actually pays for the cost of producing them," said Schlossberg. "It's cheaper to produce something in China and ship it here because no one pays for ocean acidification or sulfur dioxide pollution or black carbon and the effects on the polar icecaps." 

Schlossberg added, "There has to be a better system in terms of managing externalities for how we price those things or how companies are held accountable to including those effects in their models of profit."