Raven grows up! From Cosby to the big screen to Disney

HER fans span generations--literally. From adolescents to card-carrying AARP members, everybody loves Raven.

A veteran actress at the tender age of 19, Raven-Symone Christina Pearman is well known to big-screen and small-screen viewers. When most children were learning numbers, colors and singing with Elmo, she was learning her lines playing Olivia Kendall on The Cosby Show.

Since the series ended in 1992, the hardest-working teenager in tinsel town has rarely been unemployed. She moved from Cosby straight into another series, Hanging with Mr. Cooper, for five years, and from there into movies like Dr. Dolittle and Dr. Dolittle 2. She had huge success with the TV movie The Cheetah Girls and since 2002 has starred in her own self-named series on the Disney Channel, That's So Raven, about the escapades of a psychic teen. And as if that were not enough, in her "free time" she recorded, wrote five songs on and executive-produced her own album, This is My Time.

And it is her time! The enthusiastic young star says she's happy and grateful to have fans in several generations. "I've been very fortunate having all my fans follow me from Cosby to Dr. Dolittle to now" she says. Although she celebrates her 20th birthday later this year, it's hard for her--and her fans--to believe she is no longer a little girl. "Everyone who comes up to me treats me like 'Olivia,'" she says, laughing. "I do act younger than my age, but it's because of how I was brought up. I'm still a kid."

Today, she lives in the Los Angeles area while her parents and 13-year-old younger brother have remained in the family home in Atlanta. Even if she's on the set, when her mother calls on her cell phone, Raven politely excuses herself because, as she says, "This is my morn calling, and if I don't answer, she will call the police!"

Her parents, whom she calls "strong and selfless," supported her dream to act when she was only 2. And she credits them with her work ethic and her down-to-earth spirit. "I look up to them for their courage and their trust," she says, "and I want to be that way for my own kids."

While her parents are her main role models, she is aware that young children, especially young girls, look up to her as their role model. She is conscious of that when writing music or choosing acting roles. "I want to put positive role models out there," says Raven, who particularly enjoys portraying strong, confident girls who "are over a size 2. I'm not the girl who goes around half-naked," she says, "and that's not [a part of] my music, either. I like to portray girls who are smart and confident, and I pick roles that portray us for real. I could be in a lot more movies, but they are not what I view us to be."

Naturally, young people who want to get into the business routinely ask her advice about becoming an actor, and she always tells them that it may look like fun, but it is hard work. "I tell kids that you get rejected more than you get accepted," she says. "As many times as I have been rejected, I should not be in the industry."

The Raven show, she says, has allowed her to spread her acting wings. "When I was younger, I just had the typical 'kid roles,' and now I'm actually getting to do character roles and different people on That's So Raven," a series that has "refueled" her love of the acting craft and given her new dreams and new goals. "Because [my dreams] have been reached already, I had to create new ones."

It is certainly unusual when a person has achieved most of her dreams before she is age 20. She attributes that not only to her talent and persistence, but also to hard work. "If you put it out in the atmosphere, it will come true, but you do have to work hard for it; you can't just sit on your behind and not do anything for it."

In the future, the former Cosby star says she would like to work with actors like Denzel Washington, Angela Bassett and Robert DeNiro, as well as singer-actor Janet Jackson. But her life is not all work, work, and work. When she has the opportunity, she enjoys listening to all types of music, ranging from Beyonce to "Buddah Bar world music." She also enjoys cooking and pottery. "I do pottery after work," she says. "When I've had a long day and I'm stressed out, I just go there and throw. It is the most wonderful experience." Additionally, she says she recently started boxing for exercise, which she describes as "invigorating."

And while she doesn't discuss her private life--specifically who she is dating--she does have some specific requirements for any young man who wants to date her: "I'm not trying to be a trophy. He would have to be confident, talented and know that he needs to work too!"

But for right now she is concentrating on her bustling career. She has two films coming out soon, one on Lifetime TV and the other is a Disney movie called All-American Girl, about a girl who saves the president by accident and becomes a national hero.