I made the transition to directing documentaries with the great help of my Co-Director on The World According to Sesame Street, Linda Hawkins Costigan. She was a gracious teacher, and a wonderful collaborator.

I made the transition to directing documentaries with the great help of my Co-Director on The World According to Sesame Street, Linda Hawkins Costigan. She was a gracious teacher, and a wonderful collaborator.

I learned, viscerally, something that I knew intellectually: that I cannot protect my daughter from the difficulties as she may encounter in her search for her own identity, and that she will be OK. She has a sisterhood to share the experience with, in addition to her family.

For every teenager there are issues that make finding it hard. These girls are totally unique and totally like every teenager everywhere - in the world. They illuminate, beautifully, the universal search for identity that we all have. I hope that people come away from the film with a better understanding of themselves, and compassion for others.

My other creative outlet is knitting; aside from being fun, it is my antidote to the film business: I have full creative control, there is no development process, and I can self-finance.

I'm still producing scripted features, and I am already working on a new documentary project with Norman Lear and Lara Bergthold. It is about the Declaration of Independence and the relevance of the document today. And it will be fun and engaging - I promise!

I made a film about adolescence and what going through it is like for a specific group of girls. Adolescence is always about wanting desperately to be individuals, and also about wanting desperately to fit in. For every teenager it's about finding that balance.