Alia spoke to IML about family, friendship, and what it means for a girl to be strong.

IML: Hi, Alia!

Alia: Hi!

IML: I hear you're about to turn 13. Are you excited about officially being a teenager? Do you think it's going to be any different?

Alia: I'm really excited, but I'm not sure how it's going to feel. My co-star Mae [Whitman, who plays Grace], is a year older than me and she says that being 13 changes a lot. She says her whole attitude changed, and that her parents give her more respect. So I'm hoping that's what happens with me.

IML: Where do you live now?

Alia: I live in Palm Springs, but I come up to Los Angeles and we stay all week to shoot, and then we go back on the weekends. I was born and grew up in Palm Springs. It's a great place to grow up, a real small town.

IML: Do you have any brothers and sisters?

Alia: I have two brothers. My older brother is almost 15, and my younger brother is 7.

IML: Uh-oh. Smack in the middle and the only girl! Do you guys get along?

Alia: Well, we fight a lot, but, you know, we love each other too. It's hard to be the only girl, but I'm glad I have my mom to talk to.

IML: Do you have any pets?

Alia: I have two cats! I have a big black cat named Max and then I have a little orange one named Simba. I miss them a lot when I'm gone. Every time I come back on the weekends, they keep getting bigger.

IML: Your grandfather is also an actor. Does he give you any acting advice?

Alia: Sometimes, if I do an episode, he'll tell me how good it was. He comes over for dinner a lot and we talk about acting. He helps me because he's been through it all and he knows what to do and what not to do. It's nice because we know how to talk about the same things, like how the industry has changed since he first started.

IML: Tell me a little bit about how you see your character, Hannah.

Alia: A lot of people think of Hannah as very shy, and she is. But she's very strong too, like when she gets mad, she'll get MAD, you know! She has a really good, broad point of view. When she meets Grace, it's like a whole new life for her. She's so excited because Grace is so outgoing and wants to do everything. Hannah's parents are overprotective and always kept her in from everything, so when she meets Grace, she sees all kinds of new things. Hannah and I are alike that way...we're both open to new things.

IML: It seems like Grace is really helping Hannah grow into a different person.

Alia: Yeah, definitely. We both want what the other one has. Grace wants a family, which I have. They're really overprotective but still they love me very much. Her family's kind of broken apart and her mother's trying. And I want the "superstar" life that Grace has. So, you know...opposites attract.

IML: Do you have it in your head what happens to Hannah as she gets older? Have the producers of the show told you what's in her future?

Alia: Well, we know that she's going to become a writer. They haven't really told me any more, but every script leads me closer and closer to what she's going to turn out to be. If the show goes far, Mae and I are looking forward to it moving into the 70's. We want to be wearing bell-bottoms! I think Hannah's going to be much more open as she gets older. At the beginning of the show she was so shy, and in the episodes I'm shooting right now, she's becoming looser and gets angry more often. She feels more, and she's grown as much as I have, in this period between 12 and 13.

IML: So you feel like you and Hannah are going through the same things?

Alia: Yeah, a lot. Like with boys, and with her parents. And with outfits and shoes, and everything!

IML: Is Hannah's family very different from your family, or similar?

Alia: I would say that the Rayburns are similar to my family because my parents are really overprotective. My mother likes to consider herself a lot like Evelyn.

IML: Are you and Mae friends off-camera?

Alia: Yeah, she's one of my best friends! She's really sweet. She lives in Los Angeles, so we'll see each other after work. We'll go to dinner or a movie. I've been to her house several times. And we have a lot of fun, and sometimes on the weekends, if I'm staying in town for something, we get together. Like today, after a photo shoot, we might be having lunch.

IML: You have such a busy schedule and are out of town most of the time. Is it hard to stay in touch with your friends back home?

Alia: Yeah, it's kind of hard. I go to a very small private school, so everyone knows about what I do, and everyone's really supportive. Which is really great, because I've worked with some people who say that their schools are awful to them. I'm grateful to have a school that's really cooperative and gives me all my schoolwork. My friends are really sweet. They miss me a lot, and I miss them a lot. On the weekends we try to see each other as much as possible. It's still really hard. Mae's one of the only kid friends I have up here in LA, you know. I only have a couple, but she's my closest. It's hard when you can't see your friends that you've been growing up with since kindergarten, but we still see each other on weekends as much as we can. During the week, we stay in touch by email and the phone.

IML: Are they supportive of you doing the show?

Alia: Yeah, they're really happy. They always get together and watch the show, and then they call me, saying "I just saw your show, you looked great!".

IML: Grace always has these things that she's going through, and Hannah is a really good friend to her. Do you have any advice for other kids your age, if they want to help a friend who's dealing with a family problem or personal problem?

Alia: We deal with that on the show sometimes. If your friend's feeling bad, it's hard to know what to do. Do you back away or try to help them? It's a really hard situation that I've been in. You want to support your friend. You want to be there. My advice is, don't get too involved with it, just be by their side. If they need your help, they'll ask for it. Always be by their side, that's what a true friend does. Be there for them no matter what.

IML: On the show, Hannah is plunked down in this totally new environment, and because she's Jewish, she's different from pretty much everybody else. Has Hannah ever been teased or bullied because of it?

Alia: Not so far, but I'm sensing that there might be some of that in the future. Hannah comes off very vulnerable because a lot of people think she's shy. But she's very strong inside.

IML: What do you think it means for a girl to be strong?

Alia: I think for a girl to be strong, it doesn't have to involve being physically strong. If you want to do something, then you do it. If you don't want to do something, don't just do it because your friends are doing it, or because all the popular kids are doing it. Be yourself, and do what you want to do, and just act cool about it.

IML: That's hard to do. Even as an adult!

Alia: Yeah, it's hard. At my school it's hard, and every girl has probably had a situation where everyone's doing something and you don't feel necessarily comfortable about it, but you want to do it too, you know. Because even if you are strong about yourself, you want to do some things that everyone else is doing.

IML: Okay, here's a fun question. Have you had an embarrassing moment recently?

Alia: One little one was, I was walking with a bunch of people on the set, and I saw one of the show's assistant directors. I thought he was saying hi to me, so I said, "Hi, how are you?" But then when I looked around, I saw that he wasn't talking to me. Guess who he WAS talking to? A dog! There were all these people and they started laughing!

IML: What is a typical day like for you when you're shooting the show?

Alia: Well, it depends. Sometimes I don't have to be on the set until 9:45 a.m., but usually it's between 7:00 and 8:00. We get up, we leave our hotel and go to the set in Hollywood. I say hi to Mae and my teacher Leslie. Then, we get dressed and go down to hair and makeup. After that we go up to school, until it's time to start rehearsing and shooting. We go back to school every time there's a free moment. It's harder for kid actors that way, because when you're not shooting you have to go straight to school. They want you to get in as much school as possible. All my friends are like, "Oh, you're so lucky", but I try to tell them it's not as easy as they think it is.

IML: Do you think you're going to continue with acting?

Alia: I hope so. I like it, it's a lot of fun. And if you're having fun doing something, why not do it, you know?

IML: Thanks, Alia, for talking to us. Good luck with the show!

Alia: Thanks!

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