Soledad O'Brien's spirited manner is a perfect fit for anchoring a national morning news show, but it can sometimes deflate, say, at the local pizza parlor. About six months ago, she, her husband, Brad Raymond, and their four kids—Sofia, 6, Cecilia, 4, and twins Charlie and Jackson, 2—went out for dinner. "All of us were wiped out," Soledad says, cringing at the memory. "And this woman at the table next to us says, 'This is the happiest time of your life.' I nearly burst into tears. I was like, Oh God, I haven't slept. I am so miserable. This is the happiest time of my life?" But catch her at most other times and Soledad is apt to agree with the woman in the restaurant. With her supportive marriage of 11 years, four energetic children and a rewarding career, she's something of an archetype among working mothers. And though she readily admits it all can feel dangerously close to overwhelming, "I don't do guilt or self-pity," she says. "I don't have the time." She means that literally. Her day begins at 3:00 a.m. Within the hour, she's drinking coffee in her office, returning emails and reviewing production notes. Then she typically anchors for four hours, heads out for a shoot or two and returns to her office to write a script—all by 3:00 p.m. That's when she's off to school to pick up her kids and stop over at the playground, with her ever-buzzing BlackBerry in tow. Then there's family dinner, two bedtime shifts and some homework for her show the next day.

Finally, it's lights-out by 10:30 p.m.

"It's crazy and fun at the same time," says Soledad. "I work hard and I spend a lot of time with my kids, so you could say, 'Work. Check. Kids. Check. Balance, right?' No. Balance and doing it all are two very different things. I firmly believe you can have it all—a healthy and happy family and a career that's challenging and interesting. But what I don't have is time alone, manicures or a full night's sleep. My mother says, 'We're all given the same twenty-four hours in a day. It's all about how you spend your twenty-four hours.' " Soledad's pragmatism and penchant for bucking trends were in large part shaped by her strong family. Her black Cuban mother, Estela, came to the United States speaking no English yet eventually became a high school teacher. Her father, Edward, a white