This commentary uses a public health perspective to review the concept of healthy lifestyles for prevention of childhood obesity and explore how healthy-lifestyle initiatives are promoted through public-private partnerships. Healthy lifestyles encourage individuals and populations to consume a nutritionally balanced, diverse diet and to engage in regular physical activity to achieve and maintain health and prevent and control unhealthful weight gain and chronic diseases. Public-private partnerships are a mechanism through which healthy-lifestyle initiatives are addressing the increasing childhood obesity problem in the United States and throughout the world. The authors describe optimal characteristics and major challenges of public-private partnerships, and offer suggestions to enhance the likelihood that partnerships will be able to reverse global childhood obesity trends.