I was always an overachiever.

Parents are the weak link in the chain when it comes to protecting their children.

Returning to South Carolina meant getting a normal job in a normal town with normal people and marrying a normal person. I wanted the glamour and opportunity of the world.

Shortly thereafter, some friends encouraged me to try out for the Miss South Carolina World beauty pageant. To my surprise, I won - and was sent to New York City to compete nationally.

If pornographers can hook adolescents when their hormones are raging, they know they'll have an ongoing consumer base for life.

But even after the first week, when Hart got out of the presidential race because of the Washington Post's threat to reveal a long-term relationship Hart had apparently been having with a prominent Washington woman, the media continued to embellish my past.

I stared at the television in shock, watching as my private life was revealed to the world.