I've always been intrigued by color and by interesting hair. I was one of those weird little girls doing my own hair at the age of 9. I was like getting weird gels and new brushes and cornrow holders. I would tweak and perm at the age of 13.

In Hollywood you play a mom and the next thing you know you're on 'The Golden Girls.' They age you so fast.

When it comes to raising civilized kids there are no hard rules but there are two things on which most parents agree: Boys are generally wilder than girls and adolescents are wilder than kids of any other age. If you've got an adolescent boy you're in the sweet spot for trouble.

The reality is sobering: in the United States one in three girls will become pregnant before age 20 totaling more than 750 000 girls per year.

We can no longer waste time and money. Every day more than 2 000 girls in America age 15-19 give birth - in the wealthiest most educated nation in the world! Neither you nor I should accept this statistic.

I basically get stereotyped a lot in terms of being a girl and writing 'chick' music for teenage girls or something. I think if anything the press kind of because of my gender and my age tends to kind of relegate my work to this sort of special-interest group. It's part of the cultural dynamic I guess.

You know what makes me feel old? When I see girls who are 20-something or the new crop of actresses and think Aren't we kind of the same age?