Paltrow was born in 1972 and raised in Santa Monica, west of downtown LA. “It was a pretty simple time in a lot of ways. We grew up in a very ‘sidewalk’ neighborhood where we would come home from school and play with all the neighbors’ kids. It was very communal,” she told “Trailblazers.”
But growing up, she didn’t realize her parents were in the public eye. “You know, I didn’t really have that much of a concept of what my parents did and celebrity was so much different back then,” she said.
One of Paltrow’s favorite places is the State Beach, a 3.5 mile stretch of sand with a famous pier built in 1909, and the first on the west coast. Its famous Ferris wheel is complemented by a trapeze school and restaurants, and the summer is host to a series of outdoor concerts.
“The beach here is just so beautiful to go sit and it’s so wide and there are volleyball players and surfers. It’s like quintessential California,” Paltrow said.
Palm-fringed Palisades Park runs alongside the beach and is known for its camera obscura, on site since 1955 and now home to an arts and crafts center. As well as having a beautiful coastline, the area is also home to several farmers’ markets, luxury hotels and the Santa Monica Mountain Range with more than 500 miles of hiking and biking trails, around 20 miles outside the city.
