Growing up, I remember watching TV, and I didn't see a lot of people who looked like me, especially someone who passed as a glamorous model on a mainstream TV show.

As a girl growing up in Cyprus, Saudi Arabia and then India, the idea of cracking the industry in America seemed crazy. So thankfully, the way I was raised was to be an open person.

While I was growing up all over, in all my different schools, I was always doing theater, auditioning for plays.

Everything I've done I've always kind of jumped in headfirst, and it's been a learning curve. Even MuchMusic, I had never done live television before, and all of a sudden you show up, and they're like, 'You ready kid? Let's go.'

Who wants to leave the door open to being dominated physically by another human being? Jiu Jitsu gives you the ability to not be dominated by that person, and to me, that's real peace of mind. I don't have to worry about that when I'm walking around in the world.

As a lifelong Republican who served in the Army in Germany, I believe it is critical that we review - and overturn - the ban on gay service in the military. I voted for 'don't ask, don't tell.' But much has changed since 1993. My thinking shifted when I read that the military was firing translators because they are gay.

I experienced Nazism as a child. Like many of my generation, I was motivated by the desire to prevent another war at any price.

Children are God's Apostles, sent forth, day by day, to preach of love, and hope, and peace.