I became aware of the Impostor Syndrome eight or nine years ago, when I was working for a failing start-up. Watching our staff whittle to half its size every few weeks was starting to take a toll on the remaining employees. I was grateful to still be working, but I wondered whether I should start looking into another job -- something more secure.

I always thought that I was pretty old when I had sex for the first time (19), but Alan Guttmacher Institute reports that I was completely average. It turns out that 70% of unmarried teens in American have sex by the time they are 19. (OK, fine I was on the older end of the spectrum, but whatever.) I waited, despite intense pressure from a boyfriend in high school, because I wasn't ready and I knew it. It was a good decision for me. Other girls may be ready earlier, and those are their decisions, too.

As has been true for the past few years, the football was more interesting than the commercials during this year's Super Bowl. Nevertheless, I, like many, sat down eager to watch both the game and the ads.

A good friend is someone who will call you out on your stuff - kindly, lovingly and, most of all, honestly. A good friend did this for me the other day. She pointed out that I seem to be overthinking and that it was leading me to inertia. Inertia is a fancy word for being stuck.

This week two fellow BlogHer Contributing Editors (Virgina DeBolt and Elana Centor), and BlogHer co-Founder (Elisa Camahort Page), and me had a virtual book club call to discuss Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn.

Welcome to Marketing 101! This is the first in a series of about some of the basics of marketing. The series is designed for everyone – whether you’re already a social media smartypants or you’re working on building your blog, your brand, or your business; whether you need to know more about all the marketers approaching you about your blog, or you’re just curious about the marketing jargon flying around the internet and the stories behind those crazy companies who try to sell you stuff.

Airline miles! Cash back! Free stuff! Rewards points! Who could resist the joy of getting something simply for buying the things you normally buy, right? Who among those of us drawing breath and having a pulse haven't been asked by some store, bank, airline, or frequent buyer club to apply for their credit card because it has the best rewards around?

Sometimes being the biggest loser is not a good thing. Such is the case of Webvan, an online grocery store that was the biggest loser in the dot-com bust. When all those venture capitalists were pouring money into Webvan - a total of $441 million before the company declared bankruptcy in 2001 - the general consensus was: online grocery shopping was a no-brainer.

Amazon shocked consumers, publishers and authors on January 29 when it pulled Macmillan books from direct sale on Amazon.com over an e-book pricing dispute. Amazon and Macmillan each believed that its model was the best, and that the other company would have to cave to its demands. Amazon may have shot off the first round in this pricing war, but before the weekend was over it waved a white flag of surrender.

I swear that I will one day get over the miserableness that was the previous ensuing decade, but for now I will continue to harp on yet another failure of the previous decade. In January 2009, President Obama started the year off right by signing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law. The Act righted a serious offense committed by the Supreme Court, which had ruled that discriminating against women by paying them less than men for doing the same (or even better work) was perfectly fine as long as companies kept it secret for a really long time.

It was her face that communicated, “Look you old fart I don’t have time for all this yack-yack; tell me what to do. Let’s end this tedious conversation as soon as possible. I have a life. I do not want to prolong the veneer of pretending to share a part of mine with you.” The woman had a pseudo smile that was neither friendly nor inviting. Somehow I have crossed over into the undesirable zone. I was explaining a concept to a person approximately 30 years younger than myself. I looked at her face. The woman was more than bored, she was pissed.

Fashion Delivers Foundation was created in the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita with a goal to organize the collection and distribution of new clothing and home items to hurricane victims.The group was able to collect and give over $4.5 million dollars worth of men's and women's clothing directly to people in the devastated areas.