Anna Marie Hillinger was born Nov. 7, 1977, to William Robert Hillinger and Zita Marie Hillinger. Despite having a brother who was in and out of prison, Hillinger still managed a fairly normal life. As a child, she loved to write, which blossomed into a career. She not only married Mike Shinoda, co-founder of the American rock band “Linkin Park,” in 2003 and became Anna Shinoda, she also wrote and published her first novel, “Learning Not To Drown,” in 2014. Unfortunately, tragedy struck Shinoda when her close friend, Chester Bennington, died by suicide on July 20, 2017. While grief, guilt, and confusion pondered, she saw the opportunity to make a change in the world and seized it. With her involvement in the “Make Chester Proud” movement, which was started by Chester’s wife Talinda Bennington in Sep. 2017, it was evident Shinoda was not giving up. With strong determination and phenomenal creative talent, Anna Shinoda is still an inspiration for many young girls, even today.