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People ask me about the decision to transition from fashion to 'Rookie' magazine. But it wasn't a decision. I was 14, and my interests were changing.

Running a fashion business takes the heart of a good gambler. You're always dealing with new things. And there's no guarantee that anything new is going to be successful.

Fashion never stops. There is always the new project, the new opportunity.

I got to the point where I was sick of fashion again, like I was at the end of high school.

One cabbie chastened me by saying that the fashion industry was doing harm to young people, who are trying to live up to an unrealistic ideal. It prompted me to make body image and diversity key issues on 'The Business of Fashion.'

When Fashion Week ends, I miss the shows and the shot of adrenaline that comes with them. Each day is a new show, a new fitting, and you make new friends. Every season you get to know the other girls a little better.

The eight months I took off between 'Teen Vogue' and 'Lucky' afforded me such amazing opportunities, and I learned so much from so many different people - the brands that I worked with, the companies that I was consulting for.

Fashion was in a crisis up until the mid-'90s and, when it came out of the crisis, it was a very different place. It was a place that nurtured and cultivated young entrepreneurial designers.

You know, the fashion business is this legendary repository of young girls on their way to getting husbands. I really wanted to work.

I decided if it was going to be a mistake to come to New York and try and make a career in fashion, then it was going to be my mistake... But the American dream is real. I'm living it.