Growing up and seeing Shawn Johnson, for her to call me on the phone, I think my inner child was freaking out!

Coming into 'Dancing With the Stars,' I thought it would be a lot easier.

I am extremely close to my grandma. Growing up, she would always do my hair; she was always the one who would make me chocolate milk or rice when I came home.

Growing up, there wasn't an exact Hispanic role model that I had. I didn't realize how big a difference I was making, going to the Olympics and being Hispanic, until I would be in an autograph session, and parents would come up to me and say, 'You know, our family is so proud of you, you're really doing Hispanics proud.'

The growing diversity of family life comes with new possibilities as well as new challenges.

Sometimes, having a mom stay home is a big help. On the other hand, when a mother works outside the home, her husband generally does more child care and has higher parental knowledge about his childrens' friends, routines, and needs, cutting across the tendency for fathers to be second-string parents at home.

My years on 'Family Matters' were precious to me. During the run of the show, I saw many births, deaths, weddings... The actual family on the show became my family.

Our family was like no one else's. My schoolfriends had fathers and grandfathers and uncles who did things, but in my family, women had been the doers.