Paul Ryan is a boy in a white bubble

I'm sure that Paul Ryan isn't responsible for hiring Capitol Hill interns, but this selfie, posted to his Instagram account, should have been an enormous red flag for him. 

Is there a single person of color in this photo?
Reportedly, there is one, but I have yet to find him or her. 

As Speaker of the House, Ryan might actually have some say over how the process that Capitol Hill interns are selected, but even if he doesn't want to involve himself in that process, he should at least have enough savvy to know that this photo - chock full of smiling, privileged white folk - does not belong on his Instagram feed unless he wants to appear like he's living in a tone-deaf bubble of whiteness. 

My children are stars in an Instagram ad. Apparently the entire world has seen it.

A large number of our friends - at least those with Instagram accounts - began sending us messages yesterday after having seen Clara and Charlie in a TurboTax ad. 

Rest assured that this was no surprise to us. Months ago an advertising agency contacted us after seeing a photo of the kids on my blog. After signing nondisclosures and negotiating terms and compensation, we agreed to the use of the photo in this ad.

We didn't realize the ubiquity that the ad would achieve. So many of our friends have seen it, and as if this moment, the ad has 180,749 likes and almost 2,000 comments.

TurboTax isn't messing around.  

We also decided that the compensation received would be used to pay for a weekend at Great Wolf Lodge, a place that the kids have been asking us to take them for months. We explained to them how we would be paying the trip - essentially with money they earned - and they were thrilled.  

This situation also illustrates the fundamental belief that I have in "putting yourself out there." Some day I will create a list of all the things that have come back to me thanks to my willingness to put myself out there - online, on stage, in print, and elsewhere. Unexpected, almost always positive responses from the world.