Caitlin Wachs.

AGE 14 HOMETOWN Malibu, Calif. FAMOUS FRESHMAN Caitlin is a normal ninth-grader in public high school, even though she's playing a neurotically cool and popular teen in Fox's TV comedy Cracking Up, debuting in January from the producers who made the American Pie movies. SEEN HER BEFORE? Ya-Ya, you have! As a young Ashley Judd on The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. She also starred opposite Frankie Muniz in My Dog Skip and she was in Air Bud. PSYCH! "I'm serious--you will love Cracking Up! My character is different from me because she's 16 and a cheerleader and extremely rich, and she's delusional--she thinks she's dating Spiderman in the first episode. My friends watched it, and they were like, 'Ohmigod! You are not like her at all! And I was like, 'You guys, I'm acting!" WHO'S HOT, WHO'S NOT Caitlin Says acting is way more work than just rubbing elbows with yummy male co-stars. "It is so not what people think! It was hard working on My Dog Skip because it was the middle of summer, and so incredibly hot. We were shooting year-round stuff, winter and fall, so we had coats and wool baseball uniforms. I was supposed to be like, "I'm cold. Really I am!" but I was melting! Air Bud was the opposite. It was super-cold out, but it was supposed to be summer. I was in shorts and a tank top, and it was freezing." CRUSH MUCH? "Right now I'm single, but I have a crush. I don't know if he knows. He's a junior. He's in my music class. I'm very open, but I usually find out if a guy is for me by having my friends check him out first. They go over and talk to him, and they can say, 'No. no, he's mean!' or. 'Oh. yeah, he made us laugh!' If someone makes us laugh, we're like, 'OK, we love you.'" JUST A GIRL LIKE YOU "All I'm doing this weekend is homework and answering my e-mails. I actually answer my fan mail." OK, sort of like you. Shoot Caitlin an e-mail by logging on to caitlinwachs.com.