Victoria N. Koch’s unique and inspirational story about her stem cell donation has been featured in The Huffington Post and The Wall Street Journal. She acts as an advocate on behalf of Be the Match, the National Marrow Donor Program’s Registry, and can tailor her talk for your specific needs.

Born of a Korean father and Jewish mother from Dublin, Ireland, Victoria N. Koch was destined to have a unique life, but she never could have imagined this. The Los Angeles-based writer has worked the red carpets of Hollywood and front rows of Fashion Week, interviewing everyone from Angelina Jolie to Janet Jackson on behalf of publications such as InStyle, USA Today, Los Angeles Times and style.com. As a leading celebrity and fashion journalist, Victoria has lunched with Stella McCartney, sipped a milkshake with Manolo Blahnik and shared a dance floor with Jay-Z. Every girl’s dream right?

Sure, she had a backstage pass to the most glamorous parties in the world and met all of her idols, but that didn’t change the fact that her master’s degree was going to waste, she didn’t have much of a personal life and was desperate to do something more meaningful in the world. Then, in 2006, a letter from the National Marrow Donor Program changed everything. Victoria was informed that she was a potential bone marrow match for an unrelated recipient, who was dying of leukemia. In January of 2007, she donated six million stem cells to a 29 year-old man whose identity was unknown at the time.

Victoria possesses a fresh narrative voice and a first hand account of what it’s like to be a stem cell donor to a nameless and faceless recipient. Her real life Hollywood story is packed with entertaining anecdotes on everything from celebrity to race and ethnicity, but more importantly, it’s about saving a life, falling in love and realizing that miracles really do happen, even for cynical girls living in Los Angeles.