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Dakota Fanning knows some people will eternally view her as a nine year old.
The 21-year-old actress rose to fame when she was seven and appeared in I Am Sam. She's enjoyed a steady stream of work since then and despite growing up in the limelight she's aware many will always remember her early work the most.
"I've made my peace with the fact that there will be some people who, for the rest of my life, will believe I'm, like, nine years old. I have this joke that I'm literally going to be 35, married, and pregnant and people are still going to say, 'Oh my god, you grew up so fast! I can't believe it!'" she laughed to Nylon magazine. "And yeah, sometimes when you're 21 years old and people are still saying that, you just want to rip your hair out. But I'm OK with it. I know who I am."
Child stars have a habit of going off the rails when they hit their teenage years, but that wasn't the case for Dakota. She's proud of that, explaining that although she was famous she managed to enjoy a pretty normal childhood.
"I think that people who knew me then knew I was also exactly how kids are supposed to be," she said. "I've found that anybody who takes what they're doing seriously or seems to be a caring person gets called an old soul."
Dakota and her sister Elle are more known for looking glamorous at fashion shows that falling out of nightclubs in the early hours. When asked if she is always a "good girl", Dakota pointed out that even if she was it wouldn't be a bad thing.
The star admits the label isn't "100 per cent accurate" in her case because she likes to get silly at times - she just doesn't "flaunt" it.
What helps her stay on the straight and narrow is how important her career is to her. However, she sometimes wishes she'd made it in a different age.
"I've done a lot of independent studies in school on old Hollywood, because I think there was something really special then that can never be replicated because of the time that we live in, and technology," she explained. "I kind of long for when there was more mystery to how movies were made. Now everyone's goal is to know everything about everything."