section_path: Career/Early career
section_name: Early career
paragraph_text: Early career
  
  While a student at Howard University in 1993, Lewis was featured prominently in the hit R&B music video by fellow HU alumni Shai, "Baby, I'm Yours", filmed on campus.
  
  During college Lewis had volunteered as a mentor with at risk youth. She was considering attending graduate school but her pupils encouraged her to audition for BET's Teen Summit.
  
  Lewis's audition was successful and she became the host of Teen Summit. For three seasons she discussed serious issues affecting teenagers. In 1996, on an installment of the show entitled It Takes a Village, Lewis interviewed then-First Lady Hillary Clinton, whose book with that title had been published earlier in the year. Also in 1996, Teen Summit was nominated for a CableACE Award, and the next year the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) presented Lewis with an Image Award for her work on Black Entertainment Television (BET). Soon afterward the cable network MTV offered Lewis a position as a program host and video jockey. The thought of leaving Teen Summit was painful for her; indeed, several sources quoted her as recalling that she "cried for three weeks" while pondering her choices. In opting to move to MTV, the deciding factor was the possibility of greatly increasing the size of her viewing audience and the potential for influencing America's youth.
  
  Lewis hosted and VJed a variety of shows. She began as one of the hosts of MTV Live alongside Carson Daly and Toby Amies, the initial flagship show of the network's new era from its Times Square studios, and briefly hosted 12 Angry Viewers. MTV Live merged with Total Request to become Total Request Live, a daily top ten video-countdown show where she was a frequent co-host and occasional main host. She also hosted Hot Zone, which offered both music videos and Lewis's interviews of musicians and others, and occasionally MTV Jams. On a notable installment of Hot Zone, she berated the rapper Q-Tip about the number of scantily clad dancers in one of his videos, which she regretted not handling with more nuance. In a reference to Lewis's broadcasting savvy, Bob Kusbit, MTV's senior vice president for production, told Douglas Century for The New York Times on November 21, 1999, "In the past our talent was sometimes just pretty people who could read cue cards. But when we brought Ananda to MTV, we decided we were going to do a lot more live television." MTV also called upon Lewis to host other topical programs including two MTV forums on violence in schools, which aired after the Columbine High School massacre and several memorial tributes for the singer Aaliyah, who died in a plane crash in 2001. In 2001, Lewis earned another NAACP Image Award, for her hosting of the MTV special True Life: I Am Driving While Black.
  
  In 1998, while at MTV, Lewis made headlines when she announced that she intended to remain abstinent for at least six months. She said:
  
  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.
  
  Lewis became a familiar presence at celebrity-attended events in and around New York City with Douglas Century of The New York Times stating: "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."
  
  While a student at Howard University in 1993, Lewis was featured prominently in the hit R&B music video by fellow HU alumni Shai, "Baby, I'm Yours", filmed on campus.
  
  During college Lewis had volunteered as a mentor with at risk youth. She was considering attending graduate school but her pupils encouraged her to audition for BET's Teen Summit.
  
  Lewis's audition was successful and she became the host of Teen Summit. For three seasons she discussed serious issues affecting teenagers. In 1996, on an installment of the show entitled It Takes a Village, Lewis interviewed then-First Lady Hillary Clinton, whose book with that title had been published earlier in the year. Also in 1996, Teen Summit was nominated for a CableACE Award, and the next year the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) presented Lewis with an Image Award for her work on Black Entertainment Television (BET). Soon afterward the cable network MTV offered Lewis a position as a program host and video jockey. The thought of leaving Teen Summit was painful for her; indeed, several sources quoted her as recalling that she "cried for three weeks" while pondering her choices. In opting to move to MTV, the deciding factor was the possibility of greatly increasing the size of her viewing audience and the potential for influencing America's youth.
  
  Lewis hosted and VJed a variety of shows. She began as one of the hosts of MTV Live alongside Carson Daly and Toby Amies, the initial flagship show of the network's new era from its Times Square studios, and briefly hosted 12 Angry Viewers. MTV Live merged with Total Request to become Total Request Live, a daily top ten video-countdown show where she was a frequent co-host and occasional main host. She also hosted Hot Zone, which offered both music videos and Lewis's interviews of musicians and others, and occasionally MTV Jams. On a notable installment of Hot Zone, she berated the rapper Q-Tip about the number of scantily clad dancers in one of his videos, which she regretted not handling with more nuance. In a reference to Lewis's broadcasting savvy, Bob Kusbit, MTV's senior vice president for production, told Douglas Century for The New York Times on November 21, 1999, "In the past our talent was sometimes just pretty people who could read cue cards. But when we brought Ananda to MTV, we decided we were going to do a lot more live television." MTV also called upon Lewis to host other topical programs including two MTV forums on violence in schools, which aired after the Columbine High School massacre and several memorial tributes for the singer Aaliyah, who died in a plane crash in 2001. In 2001, Lewis earned another NAACP Image Award, for her hosting of the MTV special True Life: I Am Driving While Black.
  
  In 1998, while at MTV, Lewis made headlines when she announced that she intended to remain abstinent for at least six months. She said:
  
  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.
  
  Lewis became a familiar presence at celebrity-attended events in and around New York City with Douglas Century of The New York Times stating: "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."