The feeling of self-discovery, for me, is perennial.

The stories of kids who grew up in communities like mine weren't being written about in many books for kids.

I'm writing all the books I wish I had when I was a kid.

All I want kids to know is that I see them for who they are and not who everyone thinks they are.

I definitely have guys that I'm friends with that I have a crush on, and you don't want to ruin the friendship.

For so much of my young life, I'd felt lonely, isolated, cut off from like-minded people. I yearned for human connections and relationships with the sort of people I knew only from books and movies, a lifeline into some other, richer world.

I learned Hollywood is a small community, and you really have to be a part of the community to get anything done. Unlike traditional industries, where you can do things from afar with phone calls and e-mail, this town is really about being social. Because that's how trust gets built.

It's a hard thing for me to wrap my mind around the C word: celebrity. Rock stars are celebrities because they're larger than life. As an actor, you have to play the everyman and the everygirl. If you start treating people in the real world like assistants, that's not a good look. But my friends keep me grounded.