SU-CHIN PAK

It's funny: being green to me was ingrained because my parents were always trying to save money, save water, turn off the lights, or arrange a carpool. I don't think my parents even know what it means to be green, but they were.

My parents are small business owners, and the Korean community, like a lot of immigrant communities, is very much owner-driven.

My parents own a restaurant in downtown Oakland - Garden House - and I started working there at 8. I'd work the cash register while people looked at me skeptically. Free child labor!

I had an unusual college experience because I traveled the world while going to school at the same time. Now, to look back, I was very lucky.

Ten million 16-year-old girls would sell their right arm to live the life that I've had.

I am a permanent legal resident of this country, I was born in Korea; my parents came to America for a better life for our family, I've lived here nearly my whole life, and even though I consider myself through and through Korean and American, I guess when it comes down to it, anyone can take away my identity. It doesn't belong to me.

Growing up, the only Asian face I saw on air was Connie Chung or extras on M*A*S*H. That was it. You could either be Chinese delivery guy No. 4 or maybe one day read the news.

The Hester Street Fair started off as a passion project. We imagined a space where friends and neighbors in the creative community could have a place to find an audience.

I always tell kids to find what they're passionate about.

I think that if you know people who are performers on stage and actresses or whatever it may be, the bottom line is what you do on stage. You just take on a different persona - that's what makes her so successful. Lights come on, and suddenly, it's Britney Spears, and the lights go off, and she's just Britney.

Live theater makes me nervous. I feel like I have to fake emotions, because the actors can see me.

Any band will say that they'd be nothing without the fans.

Every time I get caught on the subway around 3 or 4 during the school year, it's definitely dicey. I get a lot of like - 'Yo, are you that girl?' Then I have to go eight stops with them.

I hate the outdoors. I'm a big snob.

Conversations about money, culture, power, class - it's at the center of my identity. I think it's a combination of being born to immigrant parents, growing up relatively poor, and really living in a world where formal institutions, like banks and anywhere that you had to sign a contract, was really feared and avoided at all costs.

I love TV. I've done it since I was 16. I don't have another skill.

Some of the most green people in our lives are our parents and grandparents, who always bought locally and carefully. I remember my grandmother would buy a jar of cream and make it last for a long time. To me, that is just as green as something with an expensive, eco-savvy label on it.

Very few people know what it's like being onstage looking out at a sea of bodies.

Man, it's hard living in N.Y.C. - even when you have money in your pockets.

People don't realize that being eco-friendly doesn't require radical changes. It's not an all-or-nothing thing. Really, it's about very simple, little changes you can make. You can still be into fashion, care about what your skin looks like, or think about what bag you're going to carry that day. You just learn to incorporate better choices.

Looking in a mirror and telling yourself to feel better doesn't work when you're a girl, but finding something that you love to do, something that makes you a better person like volunteering to help others, will definitely make a difference.

I was one of three hosts for a daily talk show on the Oxygen network when it first launched in 2000. This was before 'Bad Girls Club,' so don't judge.

I feel no shame getting in bed at nine.

I always thought I'd become an immigration lawyer.

Just as you would if you wanted to eat healthier or take better care of your skin, the most important thing you can do when buying something is to turn over the bottle and get informed about the ingredients. Many items we use daily are full of unpronounceable chemicals.