In her latest TV interview, Monica Lewinsky revealed that fame and material success notwithstanding, her real dream involves being part of a conventional family. This may seem ironic, but many women in their mid 20s share this dream in a world where such a family is harder and harder to find. Andrea N. Jones is on the staff of YO! (Youth Outlook), a newspaper by and about young people published by Pacific News Service.

Monica Lewinsky was on TV. with Barbara Walters again recently, nearly topping the list, at number two, of the "Ten Most Fascinating People of 1999."

With most of the gossip, if none of the infamy, behind her, she seems to be a young woman on the move.

She has a great book deal, is starting a promising handbag business, and Jenny Craig is reportedly paying her $10,000 a pound to shed her Rubenesque form in order to be Jenny's millennial spokeswoman.

But what does Monica really want? A family is at the center of Monica's dreams. It may seem ironic that the world's most notorious homewrecker, herself the child of a wrecked home, wants a family of her own. But it was clear to viewers that she wasn't talking about going to a sperm bank and sharing responsibility for the kids with a nanny. Her eyes said, "Man, woman, child."

A recent study done by the University of Chicago suggests this equation does not compute with modern America. Today only 26 percent of American households are made up of married couples with children.

This indicates that people are making a choice, deliberately waiting to marry or choosing alternative lifestyles. But when I talk to most young women they echo the sentiments expressed by Monica. Young women still desperately want to get back to tradition -- man, woman and child.

But the elements of this tradition are hard to find in the modern world. So young women cling to liberation. It was hard fought and finally won -- for the most part. We get involved with the wrong men, show our sexual selves because we can, and hope, to change him into a groom. Monica admitted to fantasizing about being married to the president.

My best friend grabbed up the first decent guy she could find and married him at 24. I thought she'd be the last to get hitched up. She always had this I'm-so-alternative air about her. The product of a love affair, she had the least concept of marriage of all our friends. After going through several bad boys, she met a nice one from Germany and they couldn't let each other go. After three months they married.

I craved what my friend had, a man of her own. So did the rest of our friends. Sure, we're a bunch of on-the-go, self-proclaimed feminists, but there is something almost primal about wanting the classic and historic position of wife and mother.

Our mothers and mentors tell us we're too young to sign our lives away. But, unless we're feeling down on men, we don't see that cage. We see sharing an identity in the bond of love.

Maybe what's new is that we don't always expect a marriage to last forever. My happily wedded girlfriend still isn't certain she'll stay married to the same man the rest of her life. She sees herself maybe getting married a couple of times. Children will surely materialize.

From viewing celebrity women sharing their biographies on Lifetime Television's "Intimate Portrait," it seems the third time is a charm -- for Leeza and Jacklyn Smith anyway.

People are even talking about there being more than one soulmate for each person. I'm getting turned on to that idea. If one man can't fill your life, maybe a string of them will do the job.

It seems we are moving away from the two-parent household, but for young women this idea is very much alive -- it's just not what we're finding in the wilderness of romance. Monica admitted to Barbara she had recently been in love. No doubt, she pictured a life with the mystery man -- though for reasons not given to the audience, the relationship ended. But the optimistic 26 year-old Monica is currently out there dating like the rest of us, searching for what studies say are against the odds and what older women tell us we don't really want.