Su-chin Pak

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.

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'm extremely proud I'm an Asian female and I'm on television, because there aren't many of us.

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 did MTV so long because it's been really hard to find a place that has been able to keep my interests where I can do more than one beat.

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.

People will talk about money in the general sense, but not in the specific sense of, like, where'd you fail, how'd you succeed, how'd you do it.

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

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

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.

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