It's hard - truthfully the main thing other than work is just making sure that I'm spending enough time with michelle and the girls. The big advantage I have is that I live above the store - so I have no commute! So we make sure that when I'm in DC I never miss dinner with them at 6:30 pm - even if I have to go back down to the Oval for work later in the evening. I do work out every morning as well, and try to get a basketball or golf game in on the weekends just to get out of the bubble.

There are many times for three months in a row I wrote every day, but there are also many times for three months in a row I didn't write a word. What I found is I make an appointment with myself and I don't look at each day, I look at the calendar ahead.

It is possible to be a good scientist, a good mother and have a family and even bake a cake.

You have to make sacrifices on either side. You also to have an understanding family, to know that there are going to be some sacrifices.

It’s the world that's messed up, and it’s the world’s twisted view of what beauty should be. They need to change, it’s never you.

I'm most proud of maintaining my sense of identity, you know, because I had a lot of success, and the whole whirlwind sort of happened during very formative years for me,

I had a bunch. When I was young, I really loved the Black-Eyed Peas and The Gorillas and bands like that. And then as I got older, I discovered Amy Winehouse and Lauryn Hill and older singers like Etta James. I gravitated towards a lot of young women who just played guitar and had great voices and wanted to emulate them in whatever I did, so they really inspired me.

This is something I still have to learn and figure out because I'm not perfect at it yet — but I've learned that just even something as simple as breathing properly can be a really nice form of meditation. Also talking to people about it. I started going to therapy, which has been really helpful just to get it out. Of course for me as a songwriter, writing helps. So does taking things a day at a time and stopping to just breathe because I'm a person who really thinks so far in advance all the time.

But there's a big difference between being ungrateful and being a human being going through things. That took me a while to accept. Once you do, I think it's a lot more comforting to know that it's absolutely okay to feel whatever it is you're feeling, no matter how positive your life seems.

I wanted to have one part of my social media that was just for me to post pictures. If you like it, you can like it. If not, I don't have to know that you don't like it because people have a lot of opinions, which is fine, but I think there's a difference between having an opinion and just being mean for no reason.