SOLEIL MOON FRYE: HAPPY CHAOS!

In 1984, there was really only one person I wanted to be: Soleil Moon Frye. Between the world's coolest tree house, brightly colored socks and tapered jeans, and an adoring "dad" named Henry, Punky Brewster was every little girls' idol. When I was about 8, I did a little acting and did a commercial for the actual Punky Brewster doll (Click HERE to watch... and make fun of me). Who knew that 25 years later, I would meet Soleil and get to work with her on a web series dedicated to women and moms (Btw- SIDE note, do you think anyone in the 80's would have believed you if you said, "one day, there will be an 'intra-net.' And there, we will 'tweet' each other and search each other's names using a 'search engine' called 'goooooogle' and we will stalk old boyfriends and like each other's photos by being friends on a 'social networking site' that's not exactly a book, but it has a lot of faces....")

ANYWAY, I digress... SOLEIL. When we met on the set of Her Say, I was instantly impressed by her charm, spunk, and savviness-- especially with social media. Not only does this busy mom have 1.4 million twitter followers, but she's Target's Mommy Ambassador and now a budding author.

Her book HAPPY CHAOS: From Punky to Parenting and My Perfectly Imperfect Adventures in Between (on sale August 23, 2011) is a refreshing take on modern parenting that encourages moms to be themselves and to embrace the inevitable madness of raising kids and living a full life. Hello, relatable!

Soleil believes that "happy chaos" is a sign of a family operating at its best-- when parents accept that they'll make mistakes, there will be messes, tears and skinned knees. In fact, just the other night she tweeted that to get one of her daughters to bed, she had to bribe her with $5. Sounds like the morning I had involving "here's a lollipop, now please brush your teeth."

1) You're so busy, how did you find the time to write your book? Between kids, work, and marriage, did you have to stick to a schedule?

I'm so crazed during the day with the kids and juggling work, that my time to sit down and write ends up being the middle of the night. I'm lucky because I am often inspired at midnight :) hard part is living on 3 or 4 hours of sleep.

2) My motto in parenting has definitely become "Whatever works." What are some of the things you thought you'd never/always do (always organic, never TV etc) that went right out of the window the minute you had kids and life got a little crazier?

I always thought that I'd be this super laid back hippie mama and then when I had kids, I realized that we aren't always the parents we think we will be before we have children. Now I try to find the balance in everything so while I buy my kid's wooden natural toys, they also play with Barbies.

3) We've talked a lot about unplugging and how technology can get in the way of a relationship. How has technology affected your parenting? Do your daughters understand your connection and time spent on Twitter/ Facebook etc?

My girls are obsessed with technology. Jagger literally goes up to the Television and tries to move it as if it were an iPad. We try our best to balance so when we are having dinner or having quality time with our children we put away the devices.

4) Let's talk clothes. You're always so put together and cute. How much thought goes in to what you put on? Are your wardrobe decisions based on body, function, kids, work, etc?

I'm lucky if I walk out of the door without my clothes on inside out! If I ever have to get all dolled up, you can bet that on my way out the door in my tallest fanciest shoes, I will 100% hit the floor.

5) Okay, I saw recently that your number one crush in the '80's was "Jake" from 16 Candles (Once again, I knew that we had so much in common). But I'm dying to know, as a child/teen star yourself (in the 80's & 90's) were your walls also covered with Tiger Beat, Bop, Teen Beat etc.? Who were the boys that covered your walls?

I had head shots all over my wall. I was actually just looking at pictures of my room from that time period and I had a hot pink neon light and the walls were covered with everyone from Johnny Depp to James Dean. Lots of Boys. I was truly boy crazy.

Happy Chaos comes out August 23rd. Order your pre-sale copy today! CLICK HERE!