Making the transition from child actress to adult star is hard enough. Add an education at prestigious Ivy League college Columbia to the mix, and you'll get an idea of what Anna Paquin has gotten herself into.

"I think acting is great and I really love it, but I want to see more of the world," Paquin explained to fellow actress Diane Lane when asked why she'd decided to supplement a successful life in acting with a college career. "I want to learn about things that I'm interested in and have different life experiences. One of the potential disadvantages to spending most of your childhood working is that you don't really see much else."

Paquin's career as an actress got a jump start when she beat out 5,000 girls to land what would become an Oscar-winning performance in "The Piano" at age 11. Since then, the young Canadian (she'll turn 21 this July) has appeared in more than a dozen films, mixing critically acclaimed work in projects such as 1996's "Jane Eyre" and Spike Lee's 2002 offering, "The 25th Hour," with larger-than-life characters such as super-mutant Rogue, a role she reprises in this May's "X-Men" sequel "X2." It's a part that's certainly befitting a young actress whose life has been anything but normal.

"She's lonely and doesn't fit in, and she has all these special abilities that mean she can't change that," Paquin told USA Today. "I don't think I'd be alone in saying that at some point during adolescence you do often feel like you don't fit in or you're different, or you feel lonely for various reasons. I can relate to that."

 

Fast Facts about Anna Paquin

• Moved to New Zealand at 4.

• Hobbies include gymnastics and photography.

• Second youngest Oscar winner in history.

• Is a college classmate of Julia Stiles.

• Appeared in London stage production of