Ashley Power
Born: Whittier, CA.
Currently: In 10th grade.

Ashley Power is the President and Founder of Goosehead.com Inc. She started the site when she was 13 years old. Currently 15, she stars in her own internet series Whatever, as Skye Warner. Showtime has already expressed interest in taking the series to television and a two-hour pilot has been ordered.

Power recently spoke with Zap2it.com by telephone from her home, about how she started her site, how she balances a full-time job with schoolwork, and what she sees as the future of Goosehead.com.

Zap2it: Why did you decide to create a web site?

Ashley Power: Mainly because I was looking for a lot of things that I didnt find on the internet. I kind of wanted a place to go that had everything a hangout on the web and when I didnt find that, I decided to make my own. I originally wrote what I thought about everything, had pictures of my friends, my pets, and my family on there. I manipulated algorithms to get my site at the top of search engines. I had talked to a lot of webmasters and became friends with them and they helped me out. They thought it was really cool that I was young and wanted to be very inventive on the web. I started to get about 40,000 hits a day and realized that people really liked what I had to say.

Zap2it: Did you ever think it would get this big and this popular?

Ashley Power: Never. Ever. Ever. I never imagined. I just wanted to do something for me and my friends. So its pretty amazing.

Zap2it: What obstacles did you face creating your own site?

Ashley Power: It was hard because I was so young and people sometimes didnt treat me like I knew what I was talking about. They kind of said: Yeah thats right sure whatever. Now go play with your dolls. It was hard. It was a learning process. I had to learn the business side of things and to be able to sit in a conference room with ten guys dressed in suits and be confident enough to feel I knew what I was talking about and was equal to them. As the site got more and more popular I got more criticism. I get hundreds of e-mails a day mostly good ones, but the bad ones can really be bad. Thats hard too because I am a human being and only 15 and so criticism is Im learning to take it but its hard sometimes. You work so hard on something and you put everything into it and someone shoots it down.

Zap2it: Do you get fan mail?

Ashley Power: Oh gosh it gets intense sometimes. I got this e-mail a while ago from some guy who sent a picture that made it look like we were sitting next to each other. You get people who propose marriage or say will you go to the Prom with me? People who want to take me out, they say Im coming to California for Christmas vacation and I want to take you on a date. Then you get other e-mails where people are just saying thanks or Im doing my own website and you really inspired me. Its pretty cool.

Zap2it: You mentioned criticism earlier. Is there good criticism?

Ashley Power: Its really about what they want to see. They being our audience. Ill post a message about new ideas on our message board or Ill bring it up in a chat and see how people respond and ask their opinion. Weve hired people who have written e-mails. The perfect example is Stephanie Joy who writes our editorials. She wrote an e-mail basically dissing me in every possible way she could. She said I was so terrible and she was sick of looking at pictures of me where I look like Im a supermodel. And said: What is the world coming too? But it was really really funny. And she was a good writer and I was like Do you want a job? Now were really good friends. She lives in South Carolina but were always talking. This guy that we hired made a game that you would play an Ashley Power game where it was my head on the body of a goose and you would shoot me. And if you killed me then my body would be picked up and put into a tree mulcher and my head would fly off. It was intense. Blood everywhere.

Zap2it: And you hired that guy?!

Ashley Power: Yeah, we hired him. He made the game by himself. Hes a genius. Now hes one of our webmasters. Hes a cool kid.

Ashley Talks About Balancing School and Work In the Hectic Online World!

Watch 'Whatever' Now!