Ananda Lewis

In 1998, Lewis made headlines while at MTV when she announced, that she intended to remain abstinent for at least six months. She states: "I made the decision for selfish reasons, but I'm going public here because I realized I might be able to help other girls, too. I know the kind of drama that being sexually active brings to your life. I felt that if it was good for me to take a break, it might be good for other young girls, too. You see, I think I would be a whole different person if I hadn't had sex so early. Everybody was saying, ‘Do it!' but nobody ever said, ‘You don't have to do it'. I think hearing that would have made a huge difference in my life."

Also during that period Lewis became a familiar presence at celebrity-attended events in and around New York City. "If you don’t recognize the name Ananda Lewis, it may be because you’re older than 23, or not a hip-hop star, or not a regular supplicant in the land of the velvet ropes," Century wrote at the height of Lewis’s fame. "In the last year, Ms. Lewis has emerged as the hip-hop generation’s reigning ‘It Girl,’ meaning she is not just an MTV personality but a woman whose looks and attitudes have made her perpetually in demand." Read Less