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The world when I was 13 wasn't truly driven by tabloid magazines and social media and reality shows. I was able to have a little more of a private life.

There is no doubt that the way journalism worked when I was growing up and getting started has changed forever.

It turned out I really didn't like journalism. I wanted to make up stories, not cover real events.

The fact that I'm on CNN today is something I never would have guessed as a 13-year-old - or any other age, for that matter.

I still believe that if your aim is to change the world, journalism is a more immediate short-term weapon.

I always wanted to be a serious journalist.

I've never wanted to do anything but be a newspaperman ever since I was 13.

I do know something about the news world. I was sitting on the floors of newsrooms since I was seven years old, and I've been around them my whole life. I understand that someone looks at a story with famous people in it, and you want to put it out.

I never thought my private life would be newsworthy.

Everybody I knew, practically, was a journalist when I was a kid - my father, all of his friends. I never wanted to be like those people.