HOLLYWOOD -- Things are definitely heating up for Alexa Vega the teen star of the family movie Sleepover that opens Friday.

In a February poll of teen magazines Vega, 15, was named one of the top four female teen stars of 2004.

"Vanity Fair just called me a tween star. I hope they mean that my Spy Kids films and Sleepover are aimed at preteens and not that I'm a tweener," says Vega.

"I'm not a kid any more and I don't want to play kids. I want a career like Natalie Portman with roles that are more dramatic and more mature."

Vega says she went through a tween phase when she was filming the first two Spy Kids movies.

"As a tween you're trying to be rebellious without really knowing who you are so it's all a bit cheesy really.

"I think that working on the Spy Kids films helped me get through my tween phase much faster than most kids because I was around adults so much.

"It forced me to mature quicker."

Sleepover is the story of four friends whose innocent sleepover turns into a scavenger hunt with some wild consequences.

Because she has such a faithful fan base, the film was green lit the moment Vega signed, yet she sees more than a little irony in the fact she's starring in Sleepover.

"I preferred camping out in the backyard with the boys, to having sleepovers with girls," she says.

"I've always been a tomboy. When other girls were playing with Barbie dolls I was surfing and paint-balling.

"I would always come home covered in mud."

Vega says her parents still do not allow her to date or have a boyfriend and she is being home schooled.

"After the success of Spy Kids I couldn't go back to a regular school. The kids were so mean-spirited.

"They teased me too much. It was so cruel, says the 15-year-old.

"I don't miss not dating because I'm so busy with my career, but I'm sure it is something that will concern me in a couple of years."

One of the big moments in Sleepover is when Alexa's shy outsider gets to kiss the super cool, super popular high school superstar played by Sean Faris.

"Our director (Joe Nussbaum) didn't want Sean and I to be shy about the kiss. He wanted it to look real and natural, so he had us do a lot of practising," recalls Vega, who says she had her first real-life kiss two years ago.

"It was on Spy Kids 2 and I was 13. Matt O'Leary's stunt double got a crush on me.

"He wrote a letter asking if he could give me my first real kiss," recalls Vega.

"I showed my mom the letter and she said to go for it. It was a sweet three-second kiss which was really more of a peck on the lips when you consider the kiss Sean and I have in Sleepover, but it was memorable."


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