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Shawn Johnson East and Andrew East don’t pretend to have it all figured out. In fact, they’re quick to say the opposite.
“We don’t feel qualified to give marriage advice to people,” Andrew says. “We’re just trying to fail openly and honestly with people and learn along the way.”
That mindset became the foundation for their first co-authored book, The Courage to Commit, set for release in June 2026. Rather than a memoir or a guidebook filled with answers, the project reflects something more lived-in: the daily practice of choosing each other, their family, and their values — again and again.
For the couple, commitment isn’t an abstract idea. It’s something forged over time, through decisions both big and small.
Their story together began with a leap.
Shawn Johnson, already a household name after her Olympic success, had spent much of her early life in motion — traveling, competing, and building a career at a young age. By her early 20s, she was ready for something steadier, something rooted.
That shift began with an unexpected introduction.
While attending the 2012 Olympic Games in London, she met U.S. cyclist Guy East, who offered a piece of advice that would change her trajectory.
“If there’s anything you take away from this, it’s that you should go to Vanderbilt and not Stanford, and you should meet my younger brother,” she recalls him saying.
That younger brother was Andrew East.
Their first meeting came via a blind date in Los Angeles, arranged while Shawn was competing on Dancing With the Stars. Andrew flew out during Vanderbilt’s bye week. Shawn says she was intrigued from the start — but not immediately convinced.
“He pursued me for nine months,” she says. “I ghosted him for nine months.”
The hesitation wasn’t about connection; it was about logistics. Life was pulling her in multiple directions, and she wasn’t sure how to make something real work within that chaos.
Andrew didn’t give up.
Eventually, he sent what he framed as a final message — a long text that included a poem and an invitation to visit Nashville. After months of silence, Shawn responded: yes.
That trip changed everything.
She came to Nashville, toured Vanderbilt, experienced CMA Fest, and found herself falling — not just for Andrew, but for the life they could build.
“The whole picture,” she says.
The decision that followed was a defining one. Shawn moved to Nashville, stepping away from the constant momentum of her career to focus on building a foundation.
“I played girlfriend for a year,” she says. “Just solidifying a foundation of us. Way before the year, early on, I knew we were going to work.”
That season became a blueprint for how they would approach life together: intentionally, collaboratively, and with a shared sense of purpose.
Today, their lives reach millions through social media, podcasts, and their family-focused media network, FamilyMade. But at the center of everything is a philosophy they’ve come to articulate more clearly over time.
Shawn and Andrew are the cover of Nashville Lifestyles’ March 2026 Inspiring People Issue, and will be the main speakers at the magazine’s April 23 event. Tickets are available now.
Commitment, they say, is both simple and difficult.
“In a world of options, it’s hard to commit to one,” Andrew says. “We’ve had a lot of options that could have been good, but I feel like what really has made our life great is just choosing one of those good options and making it great.”
Shawn distills it even further.
“Commitment’s actually cool,” she says.
That idea — that choosing something fully can be both grounding and freeing — became the heart of their book. Rather than offering prescriptions, they share perspective shaped by experience: what happens when you invest in something deeply, and what happens when you don’t.
They wrote the book with co-author Jimmy Soni, approaching the process much like they approach their relationship. Andrew, analytical and structured, and Shawn, intuitive and emotionally driven, worked through ideas together, building chapters and refining their message over time.
“Andrew is so wonderfully the analytical statistic guy who sees things in black and white,” Shawn says. “And I am the emotions, and I’m the feeler.”
The process took years — a stark contrast to the immediacy of the digital world they’re used to.
“Usually with social media, we film something, we post it … within a 24-hour period,” Andrew says. “And this is no feedback for three years.”
But that slower timeline gave them something unexpected: perspective. For more than three years, they viewed their lives through the lens of the book, constantly asking what mattered and why.
The answer kept coming back to the same idea.
Commitment isn’t just about marriage. It’s about how you show up — for your family, your work, your community, and yourself.
Near the end of a conversation, Andrew offers advice that feels almost disarmingly simple.
“Call your mom and dad,” he says. “Hug those that mean the most to you and always find something to be grateful for.”
Shawn follows with her own version of the idea.
“Don’t let the noise get to you. Remember the important things.”
For a couple often seen through the lens of success, that may be the most defining part of their story: not perfection, but presence.