ON THE TABLOIDS ANNOUNCING THAT SHE AND BOYFRIEND RYAN PIERS WILLIAMS GOT ENGAGED…“It’s totally not true! And his mom called me and my sisters were calling me, and I was like, ‘Are you kidding? Did you not think I would tell you first?’ And then I put out a statement that it wasn’t true, and that became a whole news story. So now it’s news when something doesn’t happen? Like, news flash: California did not get hit by a hurricane today.�?

ON NOT BEING OFFERED LEADING ACTING ROLES DESPITE HER RECENT SUCCESSES…“When it comes to envisioning an actor in a role that they haven’t seen them in, people in this business can be a little uncreative. No one is willing to take a gamble…It’s been more about developing my own material, finding roles that I would like to play and figuring out a way to get those things made.�?

ON TRYING TO ENJOY THE MOMENT…“The hardest part of this year has been learning to enjoy it. It’s almost like a full-time job reminding myself to live in the moment and not look for more, more, more…I see now that people who make movies, this world of creative geniuses that I grew up idolizing, are just normal people who wanted to do something and made it happen. Everything that’s happened to me in the last year has only made me feel more like a normal person, more human, but in the most beautiful way.�?

ON HAVING ‘A MINI NERVOUS BREAKDOWN’ AFTER HER FIRST SHOW BIZ EXPERIENCE ON THE DISNEY CHANNEL MOVIE GOTTA KICK IT UP…“I just felt really empty. I had achieved my dream, and it wasn’t totally fulfilling. I still had school problems, and I still had boy problems. My life was still my life. I guess I had been waiting to be turned into a swan.�?ON WHAT HAPPINESS IS…“Happiness is something that you have to decide to have in your life. No amount of accolades can make you a happy person, and learning that as young as I did was a gift.�?

ON HER AMBITIONS…“When there’s a film I want to do, sleep doesn’t matter. Part of me would love to be sitting in the sun in Italy, but I’d be crazy by day four.�?

W magazine’s May issue, on stands nationwide on the 20th! photo credit: Michael Thompson