Spinning the Web.

Ashley Power, 15, stars onscreen and behind the scenes at her own successful Web site

At 15, Ashley Power is becoming a big star on the small screen--as in computer monitors--and it's all because of how she communicates her experiences and insights via the World Wide Web.

Power, who lives in Los Angeles, is the founder, chief executive, advice columnist, screenwriter, and sometime actress for Goosehead.com, which she launched two years ago. Her Web site features message boards about relationships, music, and politics; weekly chats with Power; digital games and music for downloading; free e-mail; and a homework helper with links to an online dictionary, a thesaurus, and language-translation services.

But Goosehead's breakout hit is Whatever, a sitcom, co-written by and co-starring Power, about teen life and its frustrations. Thanks to this attitude-laden Webcast, the site attracts more than 100,000 visitors a day. Now, Power is sometimes recognized on the street. "This stuff is so amazing to me," she says. "It has so blown my mind that I can't even comprehend it."

Whatever is co-written and directed by Power's stepfather, Mark Schilder, an artist and writer who has also shot television commercials. The show has attracted the attention of actor Richard Dreyfuss, who joined Goosehead.com as a partner last spring to help create more Web-based shows.

Part of what persuaded Dreyfuss was what he calls the "purity" of Power's teen-oriented vision. "Some people are trying to remember their past, or they are people trying to make money," says Dreyfuss of other sites trying to reach teens. "They're certainly not talking to their audience the way Ashley can connect with hers."

A MOUSE IN THE HAND

Like many people her age, Power practically grew up with a mouse in her hand. She has had a succession of Macintosh computers since she was 8, and she instinctively turned to the Web as a ready means of expression and communication. At 13, she began teaching herself from a book how to create Web-page computer files so she could work on her Web site.

With e-mail, she found fellow computer geeks, men sometimes three times her age, who eagerly helped her over snags with getting Goosehead off the ground and on the Web. (When Schilder learned that she had enlisted the help of men she had met on the Internet, he made sure their intentions were proper.)

Today, Power employs at least a half-dozen of her Web contacts as partners. One of them, Pat Galvin, 44, remembers answering a flood of e-mail questions from Power about building and maintaining Web sites. In the beginning, he says, he did not realize that she was 14. Nonetheless, he recognized that she had "great vision," which combines with a personality that makes her a good boss. "She is extremely sweet,' says Galvin. "The smile gets you."

HEADLESS LAWN ORNAMENT 

Goosehead.com was incorporated last November. The site's name comes from a childhood incident when Power accidentally decapitated a cement goose that was decorating the family's front lawn. Even before Goosehead. com was incorporated, she listed it with some of the Web's most popular search engines. As a result, it started getting 40,000 hits a day and tidal waves of e-mail, sometimes thousands a day.

In a matter of months, Power's site propelled her (with the guidance of Schilder's business sense) into the hyperspeed world of the Internet entrepreneur. She had moved in blazing Internet time from being a computer geek (with a mother and stepfather who quickly recognized the site's potential) to being the soul of an Internet portal for teenagers, a business with 31 employees, 22 of them working full-time for her company.

"She has really created a clear personality for the site," says Jeff Thomas, a marketing team leader at iSyndicate, an online syndication service based in San Francisco that provides Goosehead with content like its movie page. "It's really a kind of unique thing. It feels like there's a real teenager in there."

The mounting workload means that Power works on Goosehead.com business not just because she wants to but also because she has to. The site generates most of its revenue from corporate partnerships and advertising, says Schilder, who is co-chairman of the company. While the site has yet to make a profit, Power and her family are not discouraged. "We are spending money faster than we are getting it," says Power's mom, Michelle Schilder, "but we are in a position to make money very soon."

Power knows that much of the responsibility for Goosehead.com's success rests on her shoulders. As a result, she occasionally has to miss school to attend an important business meeting or deliver a speech to an Internet group. She says her grades have suffered, which is something her teachers have prodded her about. "I just hang in there," she says. "I keep going with what I feel is right in my heart."

For more info on Ashley Power and other teen Web spinners, visit UPFRONT ONLINE: nytimes.com/upfront

RELATED ARTICLE: Surfing for Big Bucks

Just a few years ago when teenagers wanted to run a business, the most exciting options were mowing lawns and baby-sitting. Today, teens are taking advantage of the technology they grew up with and creating their own businesses on the Internet. For three members of the Web generation, entrepreneurship has paid off:

Cameron Johnson

While waiting for a flight home from Tokyo, Johnson, 15, was asked to sign a girl's Prada pocketbook. The Roanoke, Virginia, teen had become a Web celeb by founding three services: MyEZmail, SurfingPrizes, and SurfingXChange. SurfingPrizes.com, which was launched in March, pays its 100,000 users worldwide to surf the Net while viewing banner ads. (The company receives about $20,000 in revenue each day from the ads.) "I really like what I'm doing," he says, "and I'm sure I'll be doing the same thing 50 years from now."

Ryan Zacharia

When Zacharia, 16, isn't picking stocks for investors, he enjoys Seinfeld reruns and flicks like American Pie. Two years ago, the East Rockaway, New York, teen started Zeal Network, a company that runs three sites--Stockpicks.com (investment advice), Ibuy4.com (shopping advice), and thenetisFUN.com (introductory Web info). Zeal gets about 700,000 hits a month, and since January it has earned about $150,000. "I picked my first stock and everything got bigger and bigger," says Zacharia, who is also developing Internet strategies for other companies.

Eryn Ozanne

When she was 15, Ozanne decided to use her artistic talent to sell homemade shirts, bags, and more on the Web. Now, the site featuring her designs, Clothesforthesoul.com, sells about 80 items a month, grossing about $2,400 for the Binghamton, New York, 17-year-old. "I wanted to make inexpensive, quality clothes that people my age could afford and that were also interesting," says Ozanne. Her creations, some of which are made from fabric bought from her grandmother, are sold in shops and at fairs as well as on her site.

--Rachel Laskow