As a lonely teenager growing up in Virginia, I fed off any pop culture that could show me different ways of being from what I saw on 'The Cosby Show' reruns or read about in an Ann M. Martin book.

It took me years to find a program that kept me in shape: Gyms felt intimidating, and women's magazines seemed tailored for toning the bodies of already trim white women.

In America, mixed-race identity tends to invite both curiosity and suspicion, largely because few have found a way to interrogate it without centering whiteness as the scale by which to evaluate blackness.

The American understanding of China is filtered through years of politics; we rarely see the culture on its own terms.

Being a parent, it is heartening to see your child wake up every day at 5:45 in the morning to pursue his passion and then manage school as well.

I am passionate about acting. 'Girls in our family are not allowed to act' is quite an outdated thought to have. They did it till my mother, but now no more.

It was really important for me to understand that I needed to provide for myself, and I needed to become a provider for my own family, too.

We're a busy family. We like challenges, and we like to be fully engaged with life. I've done that as long as I've been with Sting.