People often ask me to explain how I became Raven. I have thought a lot about that. How did my transformation start?

Did I start to become Raven the first time I was the only kid in second grade not to get invited to Jennifer, the most popular girl's birthday party...? When Tony and Sam pushed me down the stairs everyday for a month in fourth grade...? When my best and ultimately only friend Lorna told me in sixth grade that I would never lose my virginity unless I were raped...? When that same friend stole my Pac Man watch (believe me, at the time that was much more traumatic)...?

When the first boy I ever kissed, J.C., told me I would have to sleep with him for him to really like me...? When Kevin, who I dated briefly in high school dumped me after only a week because his friends, the popular crowd (the Greatful Dead/Hacky-Sack crowd) told him to...?

I wonder, if only I had been a little more petite, a little more pretty, a little more blond, if just one moment had been changed, would I still be Raven, would I still be the funny, sexy, tattooed Jewess singing and talking to you right now?

Of course I would. These events helped to shape me, but they didn't create me. Every moment in my life, has made me a little more Raven, but I started out as her too. No matter how much make-up I have on, no matter how high my heels are, no matter how much my wig is styled, I'm always the same: I may have been named Rebecca, but I've always been Raven.