Issa Rae

I used to love being the class clown. I loved to make jokes and make people laugh. There was a set of students who would find it funny. But the cool students were like, 'Eeew!'

My first web series, 'Dorm Diaries,' was a realistic mockumentary about what it was like to be black at Stanford University. I'm black and I went to Stanford. Boom. Easy.

'Awkward Black Girl' is spreading to all the right people because of word of mouth and social networks. I'm so grateful.

There seemed to be endless obstacles... it seemed that the root cause of them all was fear.

While Obama might not push college education exclusively, like most Democrats he does oversell it and does shortchange the alternatives. And millions of young Americans pay the price.

It's good to like yourself, and that only comes from hard work, from doing. But vanity is dangerous; it can trip you badly.