I started working as a movie writer and a movie producer… all the way back to ‘Teen Wolf’ and ‘Commando.’ All of those experiences, plus working both at DC and at Marvel – each of those things are bricks in the wall.
I love Turner Network television; I love Adult Swim. That’s actually how I got my start on Cartoon Network was through Adult Swim, originally. I had a special appearance on ‘Aqua Teen Hunger Force!’
I started my career with ‘Teen Diva,’ and that helped me learn anchoring. Fortunately, I got work after the show ended.
Growing up, I didn’t have a chance to watch a lot of films. It wasn’t until my teen years that I had to chance to see the classic films.
I would love for a movie that I’m really proud of to launch my career but I wouldn’t like it to be some teen kind of thing that I did for money.
People don’t know the real me. The hard times I went through are what led me to my life now. I was a mess as a teen! I was kind of wild and really unhappy.
In my early teen years, I wanted to become a vet. That was my plan. I worked as a veterinarian’s assistant for a couple of summers.
I never listened to the Grateful Dead as a teen; the only exposure I got was what came through the walls when my sister was listening to them.
I feel really honored to be part of The #seetherealme campaign. It’s really amazing, as it helps many teen girls who are struggling. It helps them to find themselves and be true to who they are.
What’s with the whole ‘child actor’ and ‘teen actor’ thing? You’re either an actor or actress, or you’re not. I don’t get it! I want to be taken seriously as an actor.
Growing up, I had an internal struggle with my body because I was really chubby. My sisters were younger, and they were all skinny and all cute. As a teen, I definitely had, like, an extra 30 pounds of weight.
If a movie isn’t a hit right out of the gate, they drop it. Which means that the whole mainstream Hollywood product has been skewed toward violence and vulgar teen comedy.
One of my first paid gigs was writing psychology quizzes for ‘YM,’ a monthly teen magazine like ‘Seventeen.’
I wasn’t going to have fun doing a teen movie again.
I was, like, this token teen angst child of Broadway. It’s so funny. What is that? I don’t even know. But I loved it.
People now tell me it’s a good thing I stayed away from teen films. Well, it wasn’t my choice. I wasn’t hired.
When I turned thirteen and took a typing class, with typical early teen enthusiasm and total lack of critical ability, I started sending my stuff to publishers once I’d babysat long enough to earn the postage.
Research shows that parents are the single biggest influence on children – if you are worried about your teen and drugs, talk to them.
I did try to get a few of those teen high-school movies, but they just didn’t like me. I guess I wasn’t a certain type.
If you try to bring ‘teen drama,’ you end up doing nothing but pouting.
We won a contest at the teen fair in Vancouver and the first prize was a recording contract and we recorded at a radio station on the stairway, and we did a record and it got put out.
I’ve watched presidential debates since I was a teen, and I love it.
And at some point I would like to talk my publisher into doing an anthology of my poetry alongside some teen readers’ poetry. It would be fun, and really wonderful to get their stuff out there.
Before my teen years, I was losing my hearing pretty quickly, and I was getting very, very angry. I was beginning to become an angry person because of that.
Something I love about ‘Teen Wolf’ is that my character is written in as just a normal girl. She could have been any ethnicity; she doesn’t have to be Asian.
